Ghost Princess the Pirate
by Lotus-Lily
Summary: Slight AU. After losing her home and her family in a pirate raid, Perona sets out alone into the world. Armed only with her pride as a lady and some Negative Hollows for company, she is determined to change the fashion industry of the world forever! But along the way, she runs into an idiot boy and his pirate crew, whose pride and dreams may be even bigger than hers...
1. Princess of a Small Island

**A/N:** Hello, everyone! I've started this story recklessly out of a single idea in my head . . . I'm apologizing ahead of time if my updates aren't constant or fast, but I WILL do my best to work on this whenever I have time.

Basically, this story came about from my impressions of Perona, the ghost princess who fights Usopp at Thriller Bark and helps out Zoro during the 2-year timeskip. I felt that her Horo Horo powers had a lot of potential to be a very powerful force, yet she couldn't utilize it fully and ended up defeated by Usopp. I'm always seeing stories on of OCs and other OP characters joining the Straw Hat crew, so I figured, why not have Perona join the Straw Hats and see what unfolds?

Except, I didn't want to start _all the way_ after the 2 year timeskip, so I took the liberties of changing Perona's history and character quite a bit. In my story, she will _not_ encounter the Straw Hats under Moriah, but **much, much earlier**, in the East Blue Saga. Since I didn't like the fact that she was so spoiled, I also made her a lot nicer, but not nice enough to lose her original distinct personality.

In a sense, this fic is actually a bit **AU.** Things happen differently here, so don't expect the exact same thing as Oda's work.

The first chapters about Perona's childhood may be a little slow, but I hope you enjoy and review.

PS. I apologize in advance for any grammar mistakes. Disclaimer: Oda owns One Piece, the lucky guy.

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**Chapter 1: Princess of a small island**

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"Hmph, that's what you get for messing with me."

A young girl stood with one hand on her hip, with her nose upturned in the air. Her other arm supported a small red umbrella custom-made into the shape of the highly popular "Devil" brand trademark sign of two horns and a goofy face. It had been pretty expensive—almost worth her entire allowance for the month. She gave her curly pink hair a haughty flip before turning a glare at the little boy that lay beaten down into the ground.

"So, do you feel like calling me a spoiled little brat now?" she reached out her foot. The heel of her right boot grinded onto the back of the boy's head; she made sure that he choked good and hard on the dirt road. He coughed in pain, already too weak to fight back. Some of the villagers had gathered round and were whispering to each other, probably about her cruelty and whatnot. Hmph. Let them prattle. They needed to learn what would happen if they ever called her spoiled.

The boy was crying now, high-pitched whines rising up from underneath the girl's merciless weight. His tears and snot dripped onto the dirt, creating a messy pile of mud around his face. She grimaced distastefully. How undignified.

"Come, Kumashi. We're going home." The girl picked up the small stuffed bear that she had laid aside for the last few minutes. It looked more like a poorly sewn ball that had been overstuffed and patched together one too many times, but it still sported stubbly arms and legs and ears, as well as a hat, so she insisted on it being a bear. Nobody argued with her anyways. As she turned away from the boy, the boy's mother came running out from the crowd, yelling, "Thomas!" as the others ran to go get a doctor.

"Hmph." The girl squeezed her big bear a bit harder, and made sure the umbrella shielded her face from the villagers' view. There was no way she would give them the satisfaction of seeing her sad face. She would never, ever let them see her eyes film with unshed tears. Only Kumashi could see her sad face, because Kumashi was her only friend.

"You won't call me a spoiled little brat. Right, Kumashi?" Perona whispered softly, as she headed for the large castle standing at the highest point in the village. Burying her face into the top of Kumashi's head, the 8-year-old stifled a sigh. Yes, Kumashi was her best friend, who was big enough for her to easily hide her expression behind his large cap.

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Perona lived on a rather isolated island in the heart of West Blue. The terrain was mountainous, with rocky cliffs all along the northern shores, but there grew plenty of wild fruits and vegetables in the hilly forests to provide sustenance for the village resting on the southern part of the terrains. The villagers made do with the natural resources the island had to offer, often going hunting or fishing in the 2 different rivers that flowed through the island. Some families managed to level out some fields on which to grow crops, such as beans or corn. For the most part, they could sustain themselves, and trading with a few neighboring islands provided for anything else they might need.

Perona's father lived in the village's only castle; he was a lord, after all. He collected taxes from the common folk, and had the job of making sure trades went smoothly with the other islands. He held quite a bit of respect on the island. And as his only daughter, Perona had the privilege of living in the castle and having lots of servants to order around as well.

At the castle door, a tall man greeted her with a respectful bow. But Perona knew that he didn't really respect her. Nobody in this castle did, except Kumashi. "Did you have a pleasant walk, mistress?"

She glared at him as she folded her umbrella in, dusting it off in a rather disdainful manner. "No. The air was filthy, and all the commoners crowding around were giving me a headache. The dirt got in my shoes, and Kumashi needs a bath. Prepare one for him right away."

She didn't mention that some of the village boys had ganged up on her and thrown stones at her, nor did she mention that quite a few of them had landed hits on her body. The soreness had begun to kick in a while ago, but she would rather die than let anyone know that. She also refused to admit that it was not Kumashi, but Perona herself, who wanted a bath very badly right now. Scuffling in the dirt with those boys in a flurry of kicks and punches had been exhausting and disgusting, and her normally silky hair was now a disheveled crow's nest with pigtails.

Still, she didn't regret beating them up. Most of them took the hint and ran away screaming for mommy after she managed to blacken a few eyes, and they had left the Thomas boy behind at Perona's mercy.

She sniffed. So much for friendship. Human friends were only worth that much anyways.

The butler sighed. "Yes, I will prepare a bath 'for Kumashi' right away."

As he made his way over to the maid's quarters to give them their instructions, the butler sighed again. Really, there was a limit to how much of the lord's spoiled little daughter's whims the castle's servants could take. That child was becoming quite a problem in the household. Just last month, Perona had chased out 3 newly-hired menservants and a maid out, her reason being that they gave her a "disrespectful look." Then, a few days ago, she had upturned an entire cartful of milk being delivered up to the castle, stating that she hated milk and she never wanted to see another bottle again. Why, even yesterday, the little devil had thrown a tantrum big enough to employ half of the entire mansion's hands in calming her down. Thanks to that, the lord had been unable to concentrate on his work and instead went to a room far, far away from Perona's room to take a nap.

Day by day, Perona's antics grew worse. Perhaps most ridiculous of all, these days she had taken to giving her teddy bear baths! What would the late Lady say if she were alive.

Perona watched and waited for the butler turn the corner of the hall before sighing and heading towards her room. It lay quite a distance from the entrance, but she navigated the maze of hallways skillfully before arriving at a pair of double-doors that had a sign hung on it with the words "Keep out" written in a childish scribble. Taking a key from her pocket, Perona unlocked the door and went in, remembering to shut and lock the door behind her.

Perona's room had a giant pink bed, lots of pink and red pillows, a pink sofa, a pink desk, a pink drawer, a red dresser, black walls, and an army of cute little stuffed animals. This room had been decorated by her mother before she passed away 6 years ago, when Perona was just 2 years old. Perona didn't let anyone throw away a single article of furniture, no matter how many times the maids insisted on a change of style. Her mother had made it for her. Besides, the room suited Perona's tastes perfectly.

Perona only remembered her mother's kind and beautiful smile. A very nice smile. And that was enough. She didn't remember ever getting a nice smile from anyone else, so that memory was special.

Oh, and she always remembered one thing her mother had told her. "Don't be spoiled."

Don't be spoiled. You may be the richest girl on the island, but there are a lot of people with a lot more money and power than you, so don't be spoiled. If you're spoiled, no one will be your friend. If you're spoiled, father wouldn't like it.

So, Perona wasn't spoiled.

"But father still doesn't like me…" she muttered, a little bit of sadness creeping into her voice. He had scolded her about a month ago for chasing out some servants and a maid, but that had been because Perona had overheard them talking about stealing the treasure down in the basement. She would have told on them, but nobody would have believed her anyway, so she just kicked them out before they had a chance. Oh, and father had been really mad when she upturned that cart of milk…but, but that was for Becky's sake! Becky was the deliverer's wife, and Perona found out a week or two ago that not just Becky, but a lot of the villagers worried for the delivery man's health, since he had to pull a giant, heavy cart full of milk up and down the hill every day. What was so wrong of Perona giving the old man and his wife a perfect excuse to quit their last job and settle into a long-awaited retirement? She'd even dropped 2 months' worth of allowance onto their front porch just to make sure they had enough money to live on.

And just the other day Perona had thrown herself into a tantrum, knowing that it would draw everyone's attention to her and give her father a well-deserved rest, without any of the butlers to bother him with more paperwork. She didn't know any other way to give her father the few hours of sleep that he needed, so she made it a habit to have one of her 'tantrums' at least once a month.

"Father looked better this morning after his nap." Perona allowed herself a little smile, but it quickly turned unhappy. "But he still disciplined me about becoming a lady. Saying a lady shouldn't do things like that."

Perona squeezed Kumashi a bit more as she pouted. "A _real _lady knows when to provide the lord with some rest."

It had been in a book titled "The Proper Forms of a Lady of a House" she had read a while ago.

Just then, a knock on the door awakened Perona from her thoughts. "Mistress? We've come to prepare your bath."

"It's not _my_ bath. It's Kumashi's! And Kumashi is extremely shy, so hurry up and get the water heated, then leave!"

The maids filed in silently and did as they were bid in the bathroom connected to her room. Their features were drawn taut, cautious of their moody lady standing in the middle of the room. Perona had never particularly abused her servants, but the dismissal of the maid a few weeks ago made them nervous. Once the water was ready, they exited through the doors as quickly as possible, with barely a bow in acknowledgement to the room's owner. They knew by now that Perona never allowed anyone to help her undress and bathe, despite being a noble lady.

Yes, Perona wasn't spoiled.

Perona was proud.

"As if I'll let them assist in my bathing. How disgraceful for a lady not to be able to give herself a bath!"

Never show weakness. That's what her father said. Never be spoiled. That's what her mother said.

As Perona made her way to the bathroom, she absently wondered why they had never taught her how to do these things without sounding so mean all the time.

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A few days later, Perona woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of cannons firing.

"A dream…?" she automatically reached for Kumashi for reassurance, hugging him to her chest tightly as another series of booms sounded in the distance. The direction was…

"The village!"

Perona leapt out of bed and ran to the window, throwing the lacy curtains back to reveal . . . a nightmare.

The village was on fire, as were the nearest fringes of the forest. 3 ships stood in the bay area at the edge of the village, serving continuous cannon fire to the defenseless forms that scurried this way and that amid the burning buildings. In the full moon, Perona could make out the shadow of burly figures waving cutlasses and pistols, cutting down anything moving in their path as they rushed through the streets.

"Ah . . ." Perona tried her best to be proud and fearless at all times, but she couldn't stop her hands from shaking as she saw the guards to her mansion being cut down by men with scars all over their faces. Those ships, those scary men. They were pirates.

_Crash!_ A cannonball rammed into the mansion, destroying part of the west wing. That . . . that was where father's room was!

Despite the weakness in her legs, Perona forced herself to move. Father, father and the servants and the villagers were in danger. As the lady of the house, Perona couldn't just sit there being afraid.

"Come on…move! Move!" she yelled, and somehow, she got her feet under her and ran towards the doors. At the last minute, she hesitated a moment, before grabbing her parasol that lay leaning against the wall. "It's a better weapon than nothing…"

Just in case. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she actually ran into any of the pirates, but figured something long and hard like an umbrella might prove useful later.

Were the pirates already inside the mansion? Had the servants gotten away safely? Where was everyone? Had they left father behind to run for their lives?

She gritted her teeth and ran through hallways that soon turned unfamiliar; she had never been allowed in the west wing before. Surely, surely the loyal butler wouldn't have left father behind? Why was there no one around?

"They're together, I'm sure of it," she reassured herself as her footsteps echoed in the darkened halls. "And the butler will be risking his life to protect father, because that's what he swore to him when he entered his service. They're escaping together right now."

She slowed down as she turned the corner, stopping short at the sight in front of her.

Her face paled.

The wall and doors of her father's room had been blasted into a pile of plaster and debris scattered in the hallway, and her father lay in the middle of it, his body a bit too still, a bit too unmoving. The chilly night breeze blew eerily through the hall, but Perona didn't even feel herself shiver in her nightgown. Her eyes fixed themselves on the prone form on the carpet.

"Father…?" her legs were shaking even harder than before. She couldn't move. It was hard to think.

Where. Where was the butler? The maids? Where were the guards?

Where was everyone, when the lord of the house lay here all alone?

"Fa . . . father. Father! Father!" she stumbled forward, almost collapsing onto his body. She shook him. Her grip was weak, and he barely moved, but she kept shaking him, even dropping her beloved Kumashi on the floor as she tried to pry him awake.

"Father, father! Wake up! father wake up! We have to run! Pirates are coming! Pirates are coming to attack us. We have to run!"

His eyes didn't open. Not even a twitch. Somewhere in the back of her head, Perona realized that his chest wasn't moving as normal living people's chests usually did.

"Fa . . . father . . . ?"

Why won't you move?

Just then, she heard the sound of footsteps drawing nearer. She gasped, and held her breath. The footsteps were rough and pounding, not the light footsteps of the servants she knew. Gruff voices echoed faintly into her ears.

"Tch, all the servants . . . ran for it . . ." she caught phrases of words, but nothing whole. Even still, she could tell they were getting closer as their voices became clearer. She clapped her hands over her mouth to stop the sob that threatened to escape her throat.

"Nobody . . . treasure?"

". . . around here . . . find someone . . . make them . . ."

"We'll give them hell."

The last phrase had such obvious intent in it, that Perona's body began to shiver uncontrollably, in spite of herself. She was . . . she was scared. She was scared!

Not even the boys ganging up on her were this scary!

Not even father scolding her had been this scary!

Her father . . . wouldn't move, and the servants, all gone. She remained in this house, alone, with pirates closing in on her, fast.

'Think! Think . . . ! What would . . .' she bit her lip, so hard that a trickle of blood ran down her chin. Her breath came in short gasps, but she refused to panic. She couldn't panic. 'What would . . . a lady of the house do?'

She looked down at her father's prone figure, rigid even in death. She held back another strangled sob, hating herself for wanting to live even though he lay here, dead. She hated herself for being so weak, that she was unable to protect him. Unable to protect anything. All she could do was run.

"I'm…sorry…for failing you…" she sobbed quietly, before digging her small hand into his pocket and fishing out a ring of keys.

The only way to run right now, was forward. Behind her, the pirates' curses were getting louder.

So she ran. With her umbrella in one hand and Kumashi once again clutched tight in her arm, she ran like she had never run before. Behind her, she felt as if she had left behind her pride alongside the body of her only family.

And still, she ran. Down the stairs, through a hall, and, hearing the voices of a new group of pirates, turned and ran the other way again. Had they already infiltrated the entire house? She was getting dangerously close to running into them. Each time she came to a corner, she found another group approaching, their words coarse and fearsome.

She panted heavily, panic mounting inside. How could she escape? They probably had all the exits blocked by now.

At that moment, Kumashi slipped from her grip and fell limp to the floor.

"Oh, no . . . !" she quickly bent to pick him up. But then, saw that he had fallen with one of his arms pointing left, towards a little door at the end of the hall. It was . . .

"The basement?"

. . . Of course!

"Thank you, Kumashi! You really are my best friend!" Perona scooped him up and gave him a grateful squeeze, before running over to the seemingly ordinary closet door. After a few tries, she succeeded in unlocking it and disappearing inside.

Stairways leading underground opened up beneath her, but she had been down here once, and she knew how many steps there were even without any lights to guide her.

'88, 89, 90!' she breathed slowly, trying to catch her breath from all the running around she had been doing. Quickly, before the pirates discovered the door and came down here after her.

She made her way through several more locked doors and empty rooms-all of which easily gave way before her ring of almighty keys—until at last she reached the last room. The treasure vault.

Actually, she had never seen what kind of treasure the last room in this basement held. All she knew was that her father had told her once that the basement had a secret exit that would lead her to the other side of the island. Right now, Perona was heading towards that secret exit.

Perhaps it had been made to be used in a situation like this.

The last door creaked a bit in protest as she pushed it open. Nobody had been down her for a while; not since last year, when her father had brought her down to show her what it looked like. Even then, they hadn't gone into the last room.

"Huh . . . ?"

She didn't know what she had been expecting. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she had half-expected a pile of gold coins, or a chest full of treasure, or something shiny to greet her eyes. Instead, all she saw was a box.

A plain, old, wooden box sitting in the middle of an empty room. Beyond that box, at the back wall, stood another door—presumably the emergency exit that Perona was looking for. But really, what was with the box? It didn't look precious or treasure-like at all.

"It's not even a treasure chest . . ." Perona breathed. Treasure was supposed to be gold and jewels, wasn't it? And it was supposed to be in a fancy chest, no? Her childish expectations had been wrong, it seemed.

Not that she was interested. Gold and jewels weren't cute, and un-cute things never did spark her interest.

She perked her ears to check for noises behind her. Nothing as of yet.

She might have time to peak into the box . . . whatever was inside might be something amazing after all. Father had always been extremely proud of it. She swallowed another lump forming in her throat as her mind flashed back to the image of his body back in the mansion.

She approached the box quickly, deciding that discovering what the treasure was would afford her mind some distraction. Not wanting to waste time with dangerous, sword-wielding pirates at her heels, she flipped open the lid quickly and looked inside.

She stopped short and stared.

Feeling baffle, she saw that the box contained . . . a fruit.

A weird-looking swirly fruit.

Perona couldn't help but blink a little, simply staring at this unexpected item.

_This _was the treasure that father had been keeping down in the basement. This was the treasure behind all those locked doors, guarded like a precious jewel. What in the world for . . . ?

It . . . was just a fruit right?

Unless, it was a fruit that tasted really, _really_ amazing, and he had been saving it for when a really,_really _important guest arrived.

He . . . wouldn't have anymore use for it now though.

Perona bit her lip again, before yelping a bit in pain as she bit on the same spot that had bled before.

Well, she had no time to waste, so she had better get going.

Casting a nervous glance behind her at the closed entrance, Perona made to go for the exit when…

_Grumble._

"Eh . . ." even though no one was here but Kumashi, Perona couldn't stop the blush from spreading across her face. Of all the times, why now?

Her eyes automatically glanced down at the fruit in the box. Well, it wouldn't hurt to eat it, right?

Better than be found by those despicable pirates who were after everything they could get their hands on. Yes, she wouldn't let her family's murderers get their way.

Feeling strangely nervous at the thought of eating a weird fruit that had been her family's treasure for generations, she picked up the melon(?) and took a big bite . . . and almost spit it back out.

"Ugh!" she shuddered, her highly refined taste buds repulsed by such disgusting filth. Cursing her hungry stomach, she forced herself to finish it off, trying to find consolation that food was necessary to live. And food may be scarce for a while. The island was small, and the trees had yet to blossom into ripeness yet. She didn't know when the pirates would leave—it might be dangerous to come back to the village in the next few days. She honestly had no idea how she planned to survive out in the forest by herself, but at the very least her chances of living were better out there than staying here.

When she had finished off the entire thing, she realized just how much time she had wasted eating the fruit and cursed herself as she unlocked the exit and began groping her way through the dark tunnel.

'The fruit tasted so bad that I had to concentrate really hard just to not spit it back out . . .' it seemed physically impossible for fruit to taste bad enough that she would forget all other circumstances.

She shook her head clear of other thoughts. It may have been her imagination, but she thought she heard the murmur of voices along the passageways. 'Right now, I have to run.'

With that, the lone girl disappeared into the doorway, leaving behind an empty box and a locked door for the pirates to discover, hours after it had fulfilled its purpose.

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**A/N:** Yup, first chapter . . . please review and tell me what you think. Suggestions and questions very very welcome.


	2. Princess No Longer

**A/N:** Please enjoy!

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**Chapter 2: Princess no longer**

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—A few weeks after the Pirate raid on Finabar Island—

A naval ship docked at the ruined harbor and men in crisp white uniforms came onto the deck, surveying the damage with grim expressions. A single white flag hung on the mast, signifying the marines with its simple blue insignia.

"Atten-tion!" All the men stepped into formation as a man stepped out onto the deck, his eyes stoic as he looked over the once peaceful village.

"Captain Shepard, it's been confirmed that this is the work of the Bucca Pirates," one of the men informed him, keeping his eyes straight ahead.

Captain Shepard, as he was called, waved his hands lightly, calling out, "at ease" before stepping off the deck onto dry ground.

The signs of merciless cannon fire from three different angles . . . it was definitely the Bucca Pirates. The most notorious pirates in the West Blue—they weren't good enough to get on the Grand Line, but they certainly posed the highest threat in this area of the seas. They were also notorious slave traders who frequented auctions along the Red Line.

The Marine captain grimly ordered his men to search for survivors and do a damage check, as well as to be wary of signs of the pirates still remaining.

"Check the nearby forests too. There may be villagers who hid out in the bushes."

The men nearby nodded and began making their way towards the greenery.

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A few hours later, damage survey was all but done, and the captain prepared to return to the ship. As he gave one last look over the burnt houses, a marine soldier came running up to him, out of breath.

"C-captain! We've found a survivor!" panted out the marine. He seemed to have run quite a distance, and at the news he brought, the captain nodded a 'well done' and looked over the marine's shoulder to see who they had found. It was a man, getting on in his years, who's haggard expression mirrored the devastation around them. Dried blood caked his outfit, which might once have passed for a high-quality suit. Dangling from his left hip was a broken pocketwatch.

The captain recognized the insignia on it—the Lord who had lived on this island bore that mark.

"Are you one of the servants of Lord Fayle?" Captain Shepard asked. Perhaps he could get some information as to where the Bucca pirates had headed.

"P-please," gasped the ragged old man, "water."

His voice sounded hoarse. As the captain signaled for the Marines to go get some water, he couldn't help but frown. There were two different freshwater streams running through the island. Surely it wouldn't have been too difficult to find something to drink, even if the man had been lost?

Or perhaps he had been too scared to come out and had holed himself in until now.

When a marine soldier came with a jug of water in hand, the old man nearly spilled it all in his hurry to snatch it away and gulp the contents down.

The captain tried to question him again. "Are there any other survivors? Have any of the villagers been captured?"

The man didn't answer, instead staring warily at the marines, his expression clearly suspicious. Shepard sighed.

"We are from Marine base subdivision 147. There's no need to worry, you're in safe hands now. As captain of this division, I'll ensure your protection and safety until we escort you to our base. Now, let me ask you again. Were any of the villagers captured by the pirates who attacked you? If you can tell us which direction the pirates were headed, we can depart in pursuit immediately."

Again, the man hesitated. Captain Shepard quelled his growing annoyance with the tight-lipped man, instead trying a more sentimental approach. Pirate raid victims were often emotionally unstable—it was best to appeal to their hearts rather than logic.

"Surely you have family members that you wish to be rescued? We've already confirmed that Lord Fayle died at the hands of those pirates, but my files tell me he had a daughter, too. Her body was never found. It is my guess that she, along with the other villagers, were taken by the pirates to be sold as slaves. If you're a servant from that household, then surely you would want to see them salvaged from such a fate?"

" . . . no."

Shepard cocked an eyebrow. The man had finally answered, but this was not an answer he had expected.

The old man, formerly known as the head butler of the Fayle household, shook his head fearfully and told the marine captain, "no one survived. I didn't see which direction the pirates went."

"_Traitor! Coward! You're a coward until the end!" _

The butler shook his head again, as if to clear his thoughts. Damn it, that spoiled little brat. A nuisance until the end. "I was hiding in a cave at the back of the island. I tried taking the lord with me, but he insisted that I go ahead."

"_Tell me! Why did you leave father behind!? You didn't even bother to look for him when the pirates started attacking? How pathetic! You don't deserve the title of head butler!"_

"Lord Fayle's daughter . . . if she wasn't found with the lord's body, then I don't know where she might be."

"_Hmph. A coward like you serving my father. I should have fired you a long time ago if I'd known you'd abandon father when he most needed your help."_

"I have . . . no information to give you."

Captain Shepard stared at the old man for a few moments, before giving a tired sigh. "So the Bucca pirates have slipped from our grasps, then. If only we had been faster. The base didn't receive news of the raid until a few days ago, and as the captain of the base, I sincerely apologize that we were unable to come fast enough to reduce the casualties."

Turning back, the captain began issuing orders for the men to move out, instructing the marine doctor to take charge of the lone survivor of Finabar Island and make sure he got proper treatment and nutrition. The soldiers piled back on board the battle ship in single file, faces grim, some of them murmuring words of consolation to the butler as they passed him on his way to the doctor's cabin. Without looking up at any of them, the butler followed the doctor into the cabin. He gave a furtive glance back to the island for a moment, a flash of guilt passing through his eyes, but wordlessly disappeared below deck.

"Set sail for base 147!" captain Shepard's voice rang out. Sails unfurled, the rudder swung wide, and soon the battleship sailed away from the deserted island, where the graves of the dead bade silent farewell to the departing marines. Among the headstones stood one with the name "Lord Fayle Henry" carved primitively onto its gray surface. As a gust of wind swirled through the tombstones, anyone nearby might have been unnerved by the sound, as if someone were weeping helplessly as two different ships sailed away, each headed for two entirely different fates.

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At the same time that the butler found himself rescued by the marines, Perona sat, knees drawn to her chest, dull eyes staring at the rotten floor planks. She huddled in the corner of the wooden cell, as far away as possible from the other occupants who were only too glad to scoot away from her in return. They felt the ship rock as another wave hit the side. A storm seemed to be brewing, and the 2 pirates who were on guard duty for the prisoners spoke uneasily to each other about whether or not they would reach the Red Line the next day.

A boy sitting in his mother's lap hiccupped softly, burying his face in her chest for reassurance. Glancing at him for a moment, Perona looked away again, choosing to squeeze her arms tighter around her legs as she blinked away her longing for Kumashi. Her poor best friend. He was probably lying somewhere back in the forest of her island, lost and alone. She didn't want to think of what might have happened to him with all the wild beasts roaming about.

The ship rocked again, this time harder. One of the pirates' chairs tipped over, and the man banged his knee on the floor with a thud. A string of unholy curses followed as he righted himself, and he yelled at the innocent villagers who had looked up at the noise. Perona didn't spare him a glance. Such barbarity. Her father had told her never to associate with such filth.

Yet here she was, captured and locked behind bars to be sold as a slave by such 'filth.' It made her shudder, to think that she could only sit here, helpless, while this accursed ship carried her further and further away from her home.

"Mama, I'm hungry," one of the children whimpered.

Before the woman could reply, the pirate who had fallen earlier banged on the cell bars with his sheathed sword, making all the prisoners shrink back in fear. "Shaddup, ya brat! You'll get plenty to eat if the auctioneers decide they wanna fatten you up for the customers, so until we get there, you ain't getting' a bite to eat!"

The boy sniffled and choked, looking ready to burst into tears. Banging the cells again, the pirate yelled some more death threats until the mother smothered the boy in her embrace, muffling his sobs. The villagers in the cell across from them had watched the exchange warily. They didn't want the pirate to come in to beat them up like he had earlier that day. It seemed to be entertainment for them—how many can they hit within a certain time. Perona had seen them bet money on their gruesome game.

Barbaric. Cruel. She bit her lip, forcing herself to think of other things besides the throbbing bruises all over her body. The pain on her left shoulder ached especially hard. She refused to acknowledge it though, and blocked out her memories of a red-hot iron. Searing pain. Burning flesh.

Shaking her head, Perona retreated turned to other thoughts.

Anything to help ignore the pain.

She and the others who had lived through the raid had been rounded up quickly—many of them had tried to run into the forests, but the pirates simply hacked and slashed their way through the trees all around the island to hunt them down. After all, each one captured was a few million berries for them. Even Perona, who managed to get as far as the cliffs on the other side of the island, had been spotted and roughly hauled off to the ship.

Anger welled up in her chest. There had been a cave right in front of her, hidden behind some thick bushes, when the sound of pursuers reached her ears. It had been the cave she had hid in after she made it out into the forest—if she could have stayed inside, she would never have been spotted.

But the head butler had come running past, and Perona had called out to him from her hiding place. Of course, the wild-eyed man had barged into the cave, pushing her roughly out of the way as he scrabbled toward the very back of the rock crevice. But she hadn't called him over just to let him hide with her; she had begun to question him.

Why didn't you take father with you when you escaped?

Didn't you hear the cannonball crashing into father's room?

Where were all the servants? Did you abandon them, too?

She wanted answers—answers that could make her understand why the butler had been able to survive while father had died. Perhaps she was looking for him to make an excuse. She wanted to hear his excuses, or else her anger over his cowardice and betrayal might overwhelm her rational thought.

The shock she felt when the butler shoved her out of the cave, out into the open, was beyond imagining. The butler who had served her family faithfully even before she was born . . . the butler who always stood by father's side . . . he had given her an irritated frown as she bombarded him with questions, and had mumbled some vague answers. Then, when she persisted in her accusations, he threw her out of the cave.

She had just stood there, dumbfounded, even as pirates crashed out of the trees and spotted her with a shout. Even as they hauled her away towards their ship, she had stared at the bushes behind which the butler hid. Even if he didn't respect her. Even if he didn't like her.

How was it that he could throw her into the pirates' arms without remorse?

Had this been the way he abandoned the Lord as well?

_Crash!_

A large sound outside interrupted her broodings. Her head snapped up as the ship rolled dangerously from side to side; the prisoners, weak from days and days without food and barely any water, were tossed this way and that by the merciless waves. Perona clenched her teeth to stop herself from crying out in pain as several of the adults toppled onto her where she sat huddled in the corner. Their weight felt like sharp knives on the cuts and welts covering her body. Her small gasp was quickly drowned out by the renewed crying of the other children—as the adults moved over to comfort the young ones as best as they could, none of them bothered to turn around and comfort Perona, who now sported a new gash on her forehead from where the adults had knocked her into the splintered wall beside her.

Thunder could be heard overhead. Panicked shouts of the pirates travelled down towards them through the cracks in the ceiling. The prisoners were below deck, but that didn't mean that rainwater and sound couldn't leak through. As cold drops of water dripped from between the ceiling planks onto her foot, Perona reached out to cup her hand under it. In a little while, she gave herself a mouthful of water to drink.

It tasted of boots, of trash that no doubt littered the upper deck, as well as dirt and grime, but it was the sweetest water she had ever tasted. She drank over and over, not noticing nor caring that the salty taste of her own tears began to mix with the rainwater in her palms.

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That night, everyone on board had fallen asleep from exhaustion. The storm had ceased, and gentle waves pushed the boat forward. Even the pirates who were supposed to be guarding the prisoners had nodded off—it wasn't like the prisoners were going anywhere, anyway. How could they? They sat locked and caged on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Unless a villager planned on jumping off to drown himself, escaping was useless.

One by one, the prisoners lay down as best as they could in the cramped circumstances, many of them clutching their stomachs in hunger. The last meal they'd had was a bowl of meager gruel 2 days ago. Some of the grown men had become almost unrecognizable over the past few weeks as malnutrition took its toll. Their skin sank into their bones and the curves of their faces became sharp and taut with hunger.

Perona shifted in place, glancing around furtively. Were they all asleep? She moved a little more, purposely making some noise to see if anybody stirred. One of the men lying nearby grunted, but soon went still.

She waited with baited breath.

Nothing.

With a relieved sigh, Perona stood up, stretching her legs a little to get the soreness out of them from crouching all day. One of her toes had gone numb—she gave it a gentle massage with her hands.

_Whoosh._

A faint, whitish glow passed by her vision to the left.

_Whoosh._

Another one passed to her right, this time letting her eyes glimpse the tail-end of its form.

"Good evening," she whispered as she held out her arm. At her beckoning, the two figures came around to settle directly in front of her, both of them hovering over the floor. "How are you?"

Ghosts. Long and lean figures of pale, transparent white, with two black dots for eyes and identical goofy grins on their faces. Their arms were long and blunt, but they were comforting arms as the two Hollows crowded closer to envelop her in a big hug. She allowed herself a small smile.

These ghosts . . . or Hollows, as she instinctively knew to call them, had sprung out from her arms in the dead of night, exactly 2 weeks into the voyage. Naturally, she took one look at their ghostly forms and started screaming bloody hell, shocking everyone in the prison cells out of their slumber. Her scream of terror startled even the ghosts—they dived back into her body as soon as she started screaming, and she had been left to gape at the empty air in panic as the rest of the prisoners gave her irritated glares.

After that, the Hollows came out a few more times—sometimes in pairs, other times a whole bunch of them at once. And strangely enough, the initial fear began to wear off rather quickly. Perona found herself feeling very familiar with them, almost as if she had known about them all along. In fact, one night she consciously called for the Hollows to appear and managed to create about a score of them, enough to fill up the lower deck all the way to the ceiling.

And the more she got used to them, the more she came to adore them. Their expressions reminded her of her stuffed animals back home—funny and silly, perfectly harmless. They seemed to adore her just as much as she did them, too, the way they liked to crowd around her and nudge each other out of the way to compete for her attention. Perona honestly had no idea how she came to sprout ghosts out of her body. Had she always been this way? She couldn't recall ever seeing these Hollows pop out before.

But now that they _were_ popping out, she found it more natural than ever to have them around. During the day, when everyone was up and about, she huddled in her corner impatiently as she waited for night to fall. All her nights since then were spent with her newfound friends; in the absence of Kumashi, Perona almost wept with relief that she had managed to find new companions to confide herself in.

These Hollows . . . they were a part of her. These Hollows resonated with Perona. Whatever they saw, she could see. Whatever she felt, they could feel. All her shame, her terror, the pain and loneliness she felt surrounded by hostile cell mates and terrifying pirates, she could pour them out onto these Hollows and not have to worry about them laughing at her, or betraying her, or rejecting her.

Because they _were_ Perona.

"How's it like outside?" she asked one of them, pointing to the ceiling. The Hollow stared at her hand for a moment, before gliding up, going straight through the wooden planks. Perona closed her eyes. In her mind, she saw the upper deck, where many of the pirates lay sprawled drunk or asleep. None of them were conscious enough to notice the specter examining them from up in the air. As the Hollow climbed higher, Perona saw that even the lookout in the crow's nest lay fast asleep, his upper torso leaning precariously over the railing. Even further up than that, the Hollow's eyes turned to scan the horizon, searching for land.

Perona opened her eyes and sighed. "Still nothing . . ."

Her Hollow swooped back down through the ceiling, giving her an almost apologetic look.

"No, no, it's okay. We can't be far now, though, and that means we need to be ready."

She clenched her fists. When they reached land: that would be her chance to escape. Although when she first got captured all hope had been lost, the discovery of her Hollow friends renewed the fire inside her heart.

Her father had told her to live with pride. Even if she had thrown it away once . . .

"I'll take it back. My pride . . . and freedom. You'll help me, right?"

Her Hollows simply nudged her head affectionately. Dawn wasn't far away.

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A few days later, the lookout spotted a dark outline on the horizon: the Red Line. The pirates whooped in excitement, their minds already calculating all the money they would earn for their latest haul. As for the prisoners, they retreated further back into the cells, their misery as profound as the joy of their captors. The captain's voice ordered full speed ahead.

And Perona decided that she would put her plan into action starting tonight.

More days passed and the Red Line came closer and closer, the promise of rich slave buyers approached along with it. Yet, the prisoners glanced at each other in confusion. Something was wrong.

All the pirates who came down to take their turn at guarding the prisoners looked haggard and worn. Gone were the initial days of wild partying and celebration. Instead, an air of unmistakable fear settled on the ship. Oftentimes, the guards started up at the slightest noise, or shifted their eyes constantly back and forth, as if something were watching them. Others sat mumbling about curses and ghosts of the deep and such, but the tired prisoners couldn't make out the exact words. Only Perona watched them intently, eyes bright and predatory.

The condition of the crew got worse day by day; some started having nervous breakdowns in the middle of the night. Still others would burst into mad fits of laughter, refusing to calm down even when their crewmates beat them down forcefully.

Then, on the night before their arrival on the Red Line, the ship's occupants woke up to the sound of a blood-curdling scream, followed by a splash. None of the prisoners knew what happened, but Perona smiled with satisfaction. The time was ripe—tomorrow, this boat would dock on land and give Perona her one and only chance at escaping to freedom.

The next evening, as the sun settled low over the ocean line, the Bucca pirate fleet slowly sailed into the harbor, where various slave traders had lined up on shore to meet them. The bustling harbor city was a famous spot for the interchanging of live goods, including animal pets, humans, and even the rare mermaid or fishman. As the Bucca pirates supplied most of the goods from the West Blue region, quite a few traders had gathered to see what new items the pirates had in stock this time.

"I heard they managed to raid quite a few islands this time," one of the more prominent traders whispered to his business partner. The other man nodded eagerly.

"They'll be sure to have at least 100 fresh human slaves. With so many in stock, it's quite possible we'll be able to negotiate a lower price."

Others around them also murmured to each other, checking how much berries they had ready—the Bucca pirates only accepted cash on the spot.

"Look, here they are."

The crowd of traders eagerly pressed closer to the dock where the first ship of the Bucca pirates had anchored into. The ship seemed unusually quiet, but the greedy buyers failed to notice any difference in the usually rowdy pirates. A shadow of a figure loomed over the rails. At the sight, the traders immediately began shouting out bidding offers, knowing that with so much competition, it was first come, first serve.

"I'll take 50 slaves for 100 million berry!"

"How about 100 for 230 million, eh?"

"I have 500 million berry right here. I'll take as many slaves as you've got!"

The figure on the rail held still for a moment. All eyes were trained on him, waiting for him to point to the first lucky bidder to step on board. Then, without warning, the figure slumped forward, toppling straight over the rails and onto the dock with a crash.

Frightened, the merchants stepped back as the pirate slowly climbed to his knees.

What was going on?

When the man looked up, the trader standing at the front of the crowd squeaked involuntarily in fear.

His eyes . . . they had completely lost focus, his mindless gaze shifting back and forth in what could only be pure, undulated terror.

" . . . ."

"Eh . . . eh?" one of the traders leaned forward a little, trying to catch what the pirate was muttering under his breath.

"Haunted . . . the ghosts of the oceans deep . . . I'll die. I'll kill myself . . ."

His voice steadily got louder. His voice rose in pitch, and the note of panic in his voice made his shouts turn into crazed screeches, barely intelligible to his frightened audience.

"The ghosts! They've come to punish us . . . damn us to hell! They're here! They'll get us all! Three men dead . . . two others gone mad. The captain's jumped ship with the first mate in a dinghy . . . he's left the rest of his crew to die. We'll all die, on this accursed ship! We . . . !"

At that moment, to the absolute horror of everyone present, a white, transparent, glowing _thing_ flew out from inside the ship, passing straight through the man's chest before stopping to hover in front of the merchants. The pirate slumped forward, face planted into the ground, his voice seemingly stopped short by the _thing _that had passed through his body.

The merchants, their servants, their animals, they all stared.

The Hollow did a little dance in mid-air, then suddenly swooped towards his awestruck audience in a graceful arc. The goofy grin on his face got wider. Another one joined it, flying down from above the ship to join its companion on the dock. Then another came, this time rising up between the two, seemingly out of nowhere. Then another. And another. And another . . .

"Aaaaarrghhhhh!"

And then, panic.

Absolute pandemonium broke out as the more faint-hearted merchants fainted clean away; men both fat and skinny scrabbled towards the town as fast as their legs could carry them, their eyes even wider than the pirate's had been just before. Servants abandoned their employers as they ran for their lives. Carts overturned, bags of money spilled on the ground, many jumped into the ocean in order to swim away as fast as they could. Amid the rush, the Hollows weaved in and out of the crowd, disregarding terrified faces and high-pitched screams, sometimes passing straight through an especially loud person and making them fall to their knees.

These merchants were ordinary men, who's courage failed them at the slightest sign of trouble. And right now, the sight of a horde of ghosts spelled more trouble than any of them had ever encountered in their lives. So they ran, knees shaking and mouths blubbering as they struggled with the crowd to get as far away as possible from the haunted pirate ship and its ghosts.

In just a few minutes, the harbor had fallen silent, except for a few groans coming from some of the men who had fallen to the Hollows. Some, whose hearts had been too weak, had been knocked unconscious. Others lay on their hands and knees as they muttered indiscernibly to themselves, suicidal thoughts plaguing their minds. Bundles of money littered the ground where the merchants had left them. Chains and handcuffs, which had been brought to subdue the newly bought slaves, lay scattered messily over the area, unlocked and unnecessary.

Then slowly, the Hollows that remained hovering over the remains of the chaos disappeared one by one, fading into the air as if they had never been. When the last Hollow left the scene, a murmuring was heard on board the ship, and soon a group of ragged people emerged onto the deck.

The villagers stared in disbelief at the sight that greeted their eyes. Most of the pirates were nowhere to be found—many of them had hidden inside their cabins, crouching under blankets or hammocks in an effort to escape the wrath of the 'ghosts.' The few who had stayed on deck had been reduced to a blubbering, frightened, shadow of their former selves—they sat scattered around, each muttering to himself the most depressing and dejecting things their minds could conjure up.

As the amazed former prisoners slowly made their way towards the end of the ship that lay docked against the harbor, a small figure pushed her way through their bodies to take the lead. None of them protested, but a few adults frowned to see that it was that troublesome daughter of their former lord.

Nothing went right when she was around.

For her part, Perona felt overjoyed. Her plan had worked, almost too perfectly, and she couldn't help but feel that she had salvaged herself from permanent disgrace through her success in freeing all the slaves, even the ones on the other ships.

Her plan had been decidedly simple. Have her Hollows go around the ship at night, making sure the pirates all saw or heard them one way or another, and even turn a few of them "negative" to make it more believable that a ghost haunts the ship. Then, when they arrive at the harbor, show the Hollows to all the people outside and scare them out of their wits. She'd been a little worried about what would happen if the merchants didn't run away, but now that wasn't a problem. As she stepped off the ship and onto the dock, she nodded to herself, satisfied that it lay completely deserted.

The others following behind her gasped, some in amazement at the fact that no one was here to take them into slavery, others over the fact that millions of berries lay strewn all over the place.

Some of the greedier men pushed Perona out of the way to run forward, eager to get their hands on the berries. The others stared at them blankly, before realizing that they, too, probably needed the money if they were to survive.

Soon a mad scramble for the money ensued; Perona watched her former neighbors with a scowl on her face. One woman had grabbed two fistfuls of money, nearly gasping with joy. Another was instructing her 5-year-old son to pick up as much of the berries as he could. Some of the smarter men had grabbed the brown sacks and began to stuff money into them, even fighting each other over the wads of bills.

In her head, Perona realized that taking the money was probably a good idea. They were runaway slaves with no home to go back to—even if it wasn't the mark of the Tennryubito, each of them still bore a small mark on their left shoulders to signify that they were property, not people. All of them needed to run away, as far as possible, and to do so required money.

Yes, money was essential.

And yet, Perona did nothing but sniff her nose disdainfully. Her nightgown was bloody, the bruises and cuts hurt all over her body, and the sting in her left shoulder from the small brand etched into her flesh came back with renewed force as she watched her fellow escapees run off one by one, barely glancing her way.

All of them knew that she was alone, a girl with no parent and no guardian to depend on.

But they all averted their eyes from her, unwilling to look in her direction, or even acknowledge that the girl existed.

They had their own families to take care of; they couldn't afford to bring such a troublesome, spoiled little girl with them. She would be nothing but trouble. She would hold them back.

". . ." wordlessly, Perona waited on the dock until every single one of the former slaves left. The harbor had been swept clean of all signs of the money bills, except for the few that had drifted into the water. Those were soaked, with ink running down the paper. Perona didn't even look at them.

She stood there for quite a while, silence ringing over the waters only broken by the sound of lapping ocean waves. The sun sunk low over the horizon, its last slivers of golden light threatening to disappear for the night. She felt the air turn chilly, and shivered. The emptiness of the place was almost overwhelming, and except for the few unconscious figures lying about, she really was all alone in this place.

Well, _almost_ all alone.

"Come," she began walking, holding up her hands as two Hollows emerged out of her open palms. "It's time we left."

With that, the girl vanished into the alleys of the streets. When the marines arrived a few minutes later, all they found was a terrified pirate crew, a messy harbor, and empty slave cages with the slaves nowhere to be found.

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**A/N:** This is the last chapter from Perona's childhood. She is 8 years old at this time. The next chapter will take place 8 years later, when she is 16 . . . unless anyone wants more chapters about Perona's childhood.

I am thankful for all reviews! Please, review and help me improve my work! Thank you!


	3. The Ghosts of Loguetown

**A/N:** I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors. I'm doing everything by myself here, so it's difficult for me to catch all the little spelling blurbs and missing punctuations. Hope the readers can tolerate those and look past them to give some critiques on the story underneath!

Here is the third chapter, taking place 7 years later. Perona is 15.

Unfortunately, the Straw Hats have yet to appear. But they _will _appear in the next chapter!

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**Chapter 3: The Ghosts of Loguetown**

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—7 years later—

In the dead of night, when all other streets in Loguetown remained lit with seductive red lanturns, the alleyways remained dark and forboding. Except for the faint light of the moon, nothing shone on the forsaken streets.

Two men stumbled through the alley, out of breath and terrified. They looked all around as they continued to run, eyes wide and feet clumsy as they searched for their pursuer in the dark.

"Horohorohorohoro…." a faint laughter reached their ears. Without looking back, they picked up speed and dashed around the corner.

Only to be surrounded by a group of pale white figures, looming up twice as tall as themselves.

" . . . !"

The fact that these figures had quite the goofy faces didn't affect their reaction one bit; they both fell back, screaming bloody murder. The taller one began weeping in fear.

"Did you think you could get away . . .?" the voice continued to echo all around them, seemingly coming from everywhere at the same time. It spooked them as nothing else ever had. Were the ghosts speaking? Were the walls speaking? Was it someone else . . . some_thing_ else entirely?

One of them began crawling back, blabbering apologies as the white figures loomed closer, larger. Scarier. "P-please! W-we're sorry! We won't ever bother the merchants again, s-so please stop haunting us! Go away!"

"Horohorohoro . . . too late . . ." the voice had gotten closer. Or was it simply getting louder? They felt their ears ringing, and the last thing they saw before they fainted clean away, was a young girl, parasol in hand, stepping out from behind the ghosts as they swooped down onto them.

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"C-captain Smoker! Here are the rest of the reports concerning Loguetown. I've compiled them by earliest date—whoa!"

Smoker frowned as Ensign Tashigi stumbled through the doorway, a pile of files in hand. Miraculously, she managed to keep the papers from falling as she righted herself.

He indicated an empty spot on the coffee table. "Put it there, Ensign. And do another round of patrolling after this. You'll need to get used to our new base, after all. Oh, and make sure to deal with the matter we talked about before—I want a detailed report by evening."

"Yes, sir!" she saluted him and hurried out the door. She tripped once, tumbled, and made it through the doorway before picking herself up again. He looked after her a moment, sighing before turning back to his papers, biting down on the two cigars sticking out of his mouth in thought.

It had only been a few weeks since he and Tashigi had been directed to the Loguetown base, but already they had their first case.

But to his chagrin, it wasn't exactly up his alley of expertise. Hopefully Tashigi's investigation in town today would go well, and it'd be over with soon.

Smoker had different plans for Loguetown, ones that didn't involve some petty local street gangs. What he really meant to do to bring some justice into this town was to implement some rules. Rules, the first of which would be . . .

"No pirates will get into the Grand Line from here. Not while I'm around."

So far, he and Tashigi had devoted their days to getting to know the base, making sure they had access to full resources and information if the time came when it would be needed.

"It'll be busy from now on," he muttered as he looked out the window at one of the most lawless towns in the East Blue.

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-Loguetown marketplace-

The streets of Loguetown bustled with activity. It was past noon, and the hottest and busiest part of the day was in full swing. Merchants shouted out wares and cheap prices to passing customers, and many a traveler paid up to stock up their ships for the oncoming voyage. Locals chatted with friendly vendors as they haggled for prices, and children ran around the streets with bare feet, playing tag and hide-and-seek amid the legs of busy passersby.

A small peddler's cart stood between two stalls, balancing on two rickety wheels and a handlebar that was propped up by a piece of firewood. The cart had a black awning stretched over it, with the words "Princess Brand" sewn neatly onto it in curly pink letters. Under its shade, a group of female customers crowed delightedly over the wares being sold by a young teenage girl, her hair the same shade of light pink as the letters depicting her store name.

"Oh, my!" a lady exclaimed, lifting up a frilly dress made for toddlers. "This is simply adorable! My daughter would just adore this . . . how much is this, young lady?"

Perona, who stood next to the cart in the shade provided by the awning, glanced at the dress and replied, "Hm, so you've got pretty good taste. That Princess mini-dress is worth 30 belis."

The lady gave a surprised look. "My, it seems that your prices have gone down a bit. Didn't you just sell a pair of pants for only 50 beli as well?"

Another woman, this one younger, also held up a cute pink T-shirt and said, "Yes, and you were selling these for 50 beli just a few days ago. Why drop it to 40 now? Not that we're complaining . . ."

The other ladies giggled as they picked out their own choices from Perona's selection of clothing wares.

At this, Perona gave a knowing smile as she tilted her head. The twin pigtails that curled over her shoulders swayed sideways, and the lady couldn't help but notice how well those curls matched the red and pink outfit the girl was wearing. "Hmph. It's none of your business whether or not my prices are lowered. Just be thankful for the discounts!"

Her words held contempt, but aside from a few new customers, all the other women just shook their heads. This girl, she had first started peddling clothes in Loguetown about two weeks ago, yet her tongue remained as sharp as ever.

"Don't worry, dear," one of the ladies whispered to her daughter, who had been quite offended by Perona's condescending words. "She may be like that, but she really is a nice girl."

"She doesn't _sound_ nice," the daughter glared at Perona, who was too busy counting out change for another customer to notice the look. If she had noticed, she would have returned it in kind. "She doesn't _look_ nice, either."

The mother sighed. She couldn't blame her daughter. After all, she and the other ladies here had all had that first impression of Perona as well.

"But dearie, do you remember those bullies who like to extol money from the merchants around here?" the lady began.

"Yeah. Those guys are nothing but trouble. I heard that they tried to go around collecting 1,000 berries each from all the merchants on this street last week, but somebody stopped them. Hah! Serves them right," the girl laughed, recalling the gang of men who would go around intimidating the citizens of Loguetown.

"Why, yes, dear. And the one who stopped them last Monday was none other than Perona over here."

At this, the girl let out an involuntary yell. "Huh? Really!?"

"Hey, you over there," Perona snapped, "be quiet. Don't disturb my customers."

The girl started to glare at the pink-haired one again, before recalling what her mother had told her and turning her glare onto the various hairpins displayed on the lower shelf of the cart instead. Despite herself, she had to admit, these were pretty cute.

She glanced back up at Perona again, wondering, _how on earth did that little girl . . . ?_

Her eyes traveled from the cute twin tails of Perona's hair, down to the red shawl covering a simple Tee with a big red heart sewn on the front, to the pink miniskirt, black stockings, and boots. Nothing in this tastefully coordinated outfit suggested strength enough to take down fully grown men. And hadn't her mother mentioned once that the girl was only 15 years old or something?

The mother, seeing the perplexity in her daughter's expression, gave a soft laugh. "Looks can be deceiving, you know. Do you see that parasol over there?"

She pointed out a small red parasol that stood leaning against the cart. The daughter immediately recognized it as a Devil Brand product with its signature cute little horns and eyes. "Yeah? What about it?"

"Well, you might not believe it, but Perona used that parasol to knock out every single one of them, one by one. Honestly, it surprised us, too. She doesn't look like she'd be able to lift a pair of chopsticks, let alone be strong enough to knock five people out cold," she chuckled, recalling the way the petite girl had struck each and every one of those bullies by the point of her umbrella.

"_You're a disgrace to the respectful world," she had told them as she grinded her heel into the face of one of their fallen comrades. "Just go die, scum. Horohorohorohoro."_

It had been pretty scary, no doubt. And the way Perona had looked down her nose at them had probably made those men feel lower than dirt. Perona seemed to have that effect on people—she had a knack for looking down on pretty much anyone who crossed her path.

But the people of Loguetown had been pretty happy with her nonetheless; those thugs had been a problem for quite a while, and though Perona threw insults left and right, they now knew she was a good girl at heart. The blind grandmother who lived by herself at the corner of the street confirmed this as she went around telling everyone that Perona personally escorted the old lady back to her home everyday, as soon as the grandma finished shopping for clothes at Perona's store.

"_Her pride may be as big as the Tennryubito," the grandmother had told them fondly, "but I've never been led by a gentler hand than hers."_

The mother concluded with a smile at her daughter. "She's quite a character, that Perona."

"Hn," her daughter fingered the hairpin she had picked—a pink strip of ribbon looped around to look like a blooming flower. "Can I buy this, mother?"

"Sure, dear. Perona, how much is this hairpin and this dress?" the woman held up a flowing knee-length dress, with a score of roses decorating the edges.

"it's 90 berries together with the hairpin," Perona replied, "but I'll give it to you for 80 berries, since your daughter desperately needs that hairpin."

"What was that?!" the girl yelled, blushing a deep red.

Looking at the color change on her face, Perona gave a smirk. "I said, you need to start combing your hair. It's an insult to my line of business if customers waste their pretty faces just because they don't take good care of themselves."

"You . . . !" but the indignant retort died on the girl's lips and Perona snatched the pink hairpin out of her hand and personally pinned it into the girl's hair. With her brown bangs out of her face, the other customers could see big blue eyes staring wide-eyed at the vendor in front of her.

A satisfied smile graced Perona's expression. "There, much better. When you get home, brush that crow's nest on your head and you'll be able to walk around with your head held high."

A smiling mother led her blushing daughter away as Perona turned to continue her sales to her other customers, and though nobody saw the little girl smile as she touched the hairpin on her head, many of the neighbors silently wondered whether or not the girl had always been such a cute little thing.

Humming a little to herself, Perona straightened the teddy bear that sat on the edge of her cart, making sure Kumashi had a comfortable seat. "Oh, those socks are 10 berry, 5 berry per pair."

"I'll take 4 pairs, thank you," replied the customer as she fished out her purse.

As Perona took the proffered money, she saw a young woman holding a katana slowly approaching the cart.

A sword?

Perona turned to the blue-haired woman and scanned her up and down.

Blue hair.

Nerdy glasses.

Black jacket, white shirt, black jeans, black shoes.

Her least favorite color combinations. As Perona finished her assessment, the woman asked her breathlessly, "P-pardon me, but might you be the woman that took down the local gang last week?"

Perona put a hand on her hip. "And if I am? What's your business?"

She already knew who this was: Ensign Tashigi, subordinate of the new Marine Captain in town. Nobody else seemed to realize it yet, though. After all, Captain Smoker had just moved in 2 weeks ago, a mere few days after Perona docked at Loguetown. They hadn't done anything significant enough for the townspeople to take notice.

Tashigi pressed on, either oblivious or just ignoring Perona's flippant attitude. "Then, would you mind if I asked you a few questions about the disappearance of the local mafia group recently? Ah, my name is Tashigi, by the way. Capta—I, I mean, some people think that you might have had something to do with 109 notorious gang members disappearing all at once."

"I don't know," Perona dismissed, pausing briefly to help another customer pick out the right sized T-shirt, "but I'm sure you can get plenty of answers if you ask the fishing pole vendor over here."

"Fishing pole vendor?" the Ensign blinked, following the direction of Perona's wave to the stall next door, where a middle-aged man sat smoking a pipe. At being singled out, he leaned forward eagerly and beckoned the woman closer.

Actually, the local mafia's disappearance had been a hot topic for a while now among the merchant folks. Sure, Perona had taken care of some of their gang members, but everyone had fully expected the bigger underground group to retaliate in earnest. However, nothing of the sort happened. In fact, just a few days after Perona made a name for herself, the mafia group's main base at the edge of town had been found completely abandoned, the men who had ruled over the Loguetown's underground society nowhere to be found. After that, naturally, rumors had abounded.

If two or more locals got together these days, that was the only thing they talked about.

"None of us know exactly what happened," the old man whispered in a clearly audible voice, "but the rumor is that those good-for-nothings brought upon themselves the wrath of the ghosts of Loguetown. The spirits couldn't stand to watch their evil deeds anymore, and drove them all out!"

A few of the customers at Perona's store laughed at this, while others gave each other curious glances. Perona flinched a little when the merchant mentioned the ghosts, eyes widening a bit in surprise. Eh? How did they find out?

Another stall-owner, sitting across the street, contributed his piece of gossip. "Ghosts! Bah! Plain ridiculous if you ask me. I say those mafia bastards have gotten a beating from those rival gangs or something. . . and they're just too embarrassed to say they've been beaten, so they make up those ghost stories."

"No, no, It's true! Old Ben says he saw a ghost with his own eyes! All pale and ghost-like," the first merchant testified, completely forgetting about the fishing poles he was supposed to be selling. "And we all know Old Ben ain't never told a lie!"

"Well . . . !" the other man fumbled a bit before yelling back, "then Old Ben's going senile, since I've never seen such ghosts."

Perona shifted her eyes back and forth between them nervously, unconsciously fingering the folded parasol beside her. Well, as long as they continued to dismiss it as rumors . . . she'd had no idea those kinds of rumors were going around. Even with her Negative Hollows always on the watch, she couldn't catch everything that went on around here. A nervous smile took over her expression as she noted the eagerness in the Ensign's face.

No, no, no, Ensign Tashigi, ghosts don't exist. Just ignore that rumor. Marines shouldn't be swayed so easily by local myths, right?

Apparently, Perona's silent incantation had no effect on Tashigi, as the older woman turned to Perona again. "Ghosts? Is it true that these ghosts were the ones who took out those evildoers? I had personally thought it might have been you, Perona-san. You have enough strength to take down their lackies, and it was only a few days after their run-in with you that their entire organization disappeared."

Eh, when you put it like that . . .

Perona put on her best poker face. It ended up looking like the smile of a haughty queen, but the important thing right now was to avoid detection. "So what, I took down a couple of their goons. Anybody could do that if they have a weapon in their hands."

She picked up her parasol and waved it around in demonstration. "And ghosts of Loguetown? How should I know anything about that? I'm not from around here, you know. I'm a traveling merchant. Don't expect me to have something to say about such nonsense rumors the locals are spouting."

"It ain't nonsense, missy!" the merchant next door protested.

Perona turned her head away in a huff. "If you don't have proof, I've got no reason to listen to you. Why don't you concentrate on selling those poles instead of wasting time talking about ghosts, hm?"

And suddenly the chatty merchant remembered that his wife had made him swear to sell at least the minimum quota that day . . . or else, no dinner. He grunted in dismay. Turning back to the streets, he managed to snag a customer willing to buy a 10-foot long pole, proceeding with his transactions with a grateful smile at Perona.

The girl had saved him from a beating from his wife yesterday, too, by reminding him to pay attention to his customers rather than the gossip floating around between the merchants on the street.

He seemed to have forgotten that it had been Perona who dragged him into the conversation in the first place.

"So, anyways," Perona turned back to Tahigi, a scowl on her face, "I don't know what gave you the idea that I'd be able to take down an entire mafia group single-handedly, but let me tell you: you're dead wrong. Why don't you try finding the _real_ reason instead of wasting time looking for answers in bogus rumors?"

Perona inwardly flinched. That had come out sounding meaner than necessary. She hoped the woman would take the hint and stop pestering her with dangerously accurate questions.

_Just go. Not like I'll ever admit it really _was_ me that drove them out of here._

Fortunately, her silent pleas worked this time. The Ensign seemed to stare at Perona another moment before giving a bow. "I see. Sorry to bother you, then. I'll be sure to report everything I've heard to Cap—I, I mean—"

"Yes, yes," Perona waved her goodbye. "I'm sure you'll find the truth soon enough. But I wouldn't waste time with such investigations when so many pirates are still in town. I suggest you and your boss focus on the marines' real line of duties rather than waste your energy chasing down some street gangs."

"Eh?" Tashigi's glasses slipped from her eyes and clattered to her floor. She looked surprised that Perona knew who she was. With a tired sigh, Perona picked up the glasses and handed them back to her, adding, "and if you ever need new clothes, come to my cart. I'll be here for the next month or two before I move on, and it'll be my pleasure to coordinate you a new wardrobe."

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly be so imposing on a stranger . . ." blushed the Ensign as she readjusted her glasses.

Perona just scowled. "Who said it's for you? I said it, right? For _my _pleasure. Honestly, how I managed to talk to you for so long while staring at that ugly outfit of yours is beyond me. You're wasting your pretty face, miss. Give a right touch here and there and you'll be the talk of the marines, you know?"

"Eh . . . eh? Eh!? Um, well . . . !" Tashigi fumbled, at a loss as to what Perona meant. Was it an insult? A compliment? "Well, um, see you around, Perona-san!"

The blush on the woman's face was quite obvious as she took off down the road, but Perona didn't comment. She'd meant it—that woman was a rare jewel. If she ever had the chance, Perona would love to give her a makeover and admire the beauty lying dormant underneath that tomboyish haircut.

With a mischievous grin, Perona went back to her customers, and managed to sell 6 more T-shirts, 2 skirts, and 11 hairpins that day. She also got a few kids—girls, mostly—who paid her a few berries for one of her skillfully crafted stuffed animals. Some of them stared at Kumashi longingly, but averted their eyes underneath Perona's icy stare.

She'd already made it clear: all stuffed animals for sale except Kumashi.

As the shadows grew longer and the evening wore on, Perona prepared to close shop for the night. Taking off the shelves and boxes containing her products, she laid them on the ground carefully before flipping open the lid to her cart. Normally, she stored all her wares inside the cart. It was only when she came out to sell them to customers that she displayed them on top of the cart's lid.

One by one, the boxes lined with shirts, pants, jeans, skirts, jackets, accessories, and stuffed animals disappeared into the cart, leaving only her beloved Kumashi and parasol still out. These belonged to Perona, so no need to put them with the wares. With a snap, she closed and locked the cart lid and stepped into the handlebar, making sure her stuffed bear and umbrella had been securely fastened on the cart.

"Umph!" picking the handlebar up, she began to pull. The other merchants were also preparing to close down; crates of vegetables vanished into storerooms, while certain knickknack shop owners swept their gadgets into a bag for safekeeping. The normally busy street had slowed down considerably, and Perona had no trouble pulling her rather large "Princess Brand" peddler cart down the street towards the harbor.

Sewing had always been her hobby, ever since childhood. Especially since Perona could be quite picky about her choice of clothing and stuffed animals. She absolutely adored cute things with a passion, and her little island simply did not have the wares to satisfy her tastes. So, she had resorted to homemade things despite her father's disapproval at such a commoner's hobby, and Kumashi the bear became her first masterpiece. Even now, though her original bear was lost, her newly made Kumashi remained her absolute favorite friend.

Now, her sewing hobby earned her enough money to live off of. In fact, she allowed herself a bit of pride for her skills. She had managed to make quite a name for her Princess Brand clothing back in Mariejois. Even some Tennryubito had purchased her accessories, boosting the appeal for her wares considerably in the popular market.

Some may ask, if the brand is so popular, why bother leaving the heavenly city?

Perona scowled. There was no way she'd become the exclusive designer for Saint Roswald's daughter, even if it _was_ an invitation by the Tennryubito lord himself. How insulting!

The Roswald family butler had continued to pester her at her store for a while, so much so that Perona got absolutely sick of it. So 1 years ago, she'd declared her intentions to sell her merchandise all over the world. And to do that, she would travel.

Hah, as if some stuck-up rich girl could keep a true designer tied down.

And here she was now, all the way in the East Blue, peddling her handmade clothing to women around the world.

As Loguetown harbor came into view, Perona thought back ruefully on the abounding rumors regarding ghosts around Loguetown.

Indeed, these rumors were at least partially true.

'Though they aren't the spirits of Loguetown,' she laughed to herself, 'they're my Hollows. Horohorohorohoro.'

Years ago, when she escaped from the Bucca pirate ship, she had discovered the power of her Negative Hollows: to make everything they touched "negative." And not only that, but she could also project her own spirit out of her body, looking exactly like her, and could fly around and go through walls just like her other hollows. Her spirit could even change size! She was, in every sense of the word, a ghost-woman. Furthermore, she had also created several different ghost versions for different uses, and only after she managed to grasped the mechanics of her ghost powers did she dare set out from the safe premises of the Celestial city.

As for dealing with the Loguetown mafia, it had been cake.

Strawberry cake.

It had taken only 2 nights to fully eradicate them. By giving a few ghostly warnings to the higher-ups, as well as a major beatdown using her special Explosive Hollows, Perona found herself free to conduct business without annoyances like gangs and such things.

She gave a satisfied smile as her boat came into view. It had a wide deck, specially designed so that the cart could easily be tied on and secured without taking up too much space. With an un-ladylike grunt, she shoved the cart up the plank and onto the vessel. Her hands made quick work of the ropes, and giving it a final lookover to see that it was secure, she went below deck to change her clothes. Having stood out in the sun all day, she felt sweaty and disgusting and desperately needed a fresh outfit.

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Later that evening, Perona had her parasol up and Kumashi hanging out from her specially designed red purse as she strolled through the plaza on her daily walk. The sights to see here were always amazing, and Perona made it a point to come here everyday—even if she was tired—to give herself a break from her work. There stood a limit to sitting in her boat's cabin, sewing shirts and stuffed animals all day. Even if her favorite fluffy, cute stuffed animals filled her cabin from floor to ceiling. Even if it was her sanctuary.

Once in a while, she simply had to get a breath of fresh air.

"Oh?" Perona spotted Ensign Tashigi from earlier. She was following behind a scary-looking man with two cigars in his mouth—cigars which made Perona frown.

'How uncouth.'

She walked a little closer, curious as to what they were talking so seriously about. They seemed to be oblivious to all the fun and games going on around them.

"Captain Smoker, there really may be ghosts that are haunting this town!" the woman said.

"Captain Smoker, hm? Horohorohorohoro, certainly lives up to his name, don't you think, Kumashi?" Perona muttered, looking down at her stuffed bear for agreement. A Captain Smoker who smokes, and has smoke powers, neh?

The bear gave a little nod, agreeing with Perona.

Perona turned back to the pair, curious as to what the captain would think about the whole ghost affair. He _had _been the one to suspect her in the first place.

She trailed behind them at a distance, reducing her presence into that of a ghost so that they wouldn't notice her following them even with her flashy pink and black outfit. This skill had required quite a bit of practice, but Perona was slowly beginnning to get the hang of giving her physical body ghostly attributes, without necessarily having to project her spirit into a ghost form separate from her body. She could reduce her presence into nothingness and blend in with the crowd or shadows, or even float off the ground like a hollow, though only for a few seconds. Training her ghost powers had become an essential part of her life now, especially after she began to travel on her own.

"Get a grip, Tashigi," growled Smoker, "even if there were ghosts, as long as they're not pirates, I don't care. And if that girl's got nothing to do with the incident, then this case is closed."

"B-but, they might be pirate ghosts! Everyone on the streets is talking about them…"

"Urban legends have nothing to do with the marines, Ensign. Just be sure to be on the lookout for flesh-and-blood pirates. We've got no business dealing with ghosts, you got that? And as for the whole mafia business, it isn't my style to go around trying to find out why things happened after everything's said and done—if it weren't for the Vice-admiral's orders, I would've declared the incident 'case closed' a long time ago instead of letting it drag on this long. Look, Ensign," the captain turned to look back at the woman, "we're here to capture pirates. Nothing more, got it?"

"But…." Smoker gave her a glare, and Tashigi shrunk back. "Aye, Captain…"

"Hmm…hmm," Perona hummed to herself, a bit relieved that the marines wouldn't investigate any further into it. She'd been afraid that they might catch wind that the ghosts were a product of the Horo Horo no mi.

She'd done her research a while ago, back when she still hadn't a clue on where her powers originated from. Picking up on some rumors, she'd found that the description of devil's fruits was awfully similar to her case. Weird-looking fruit. Sudden strange powers. It all fit together. She'd even snuck into the specially restricted library in MarieJois (through her spirit projection) to read up on her own devil's fruit. Since she couldn't directly move objects while in spirit form, she'd had one of her possession Hollows possess the book in question and flip it open to the right page.

It had been a disappointment. It didn't tell her anything she already didn't know. In fact, there was absolutely no detail.

It still peeved her when she thought about it. She'd struggled for weeks to perfect the 'Possession Hollow'—with the power to possess inanimate objects—just so that she could read that book, only to find that she knew more about the Horo Horo no mi than the inventory did.

'Ah, well,' she thought to herself as she gave her parasol a twirl, 'at least I mastered another hollow form.'

She had 3 hollow forms at the moment: Negative Hollows, Explosion Hollows, and Possession Hollows. The ones that she usually had around were the Negative Hollows. These were also the ones she used to scare people with, since they looked the most ghost-like.

In the initial months after her escape from the pirate ship, Perona had survived by relying on her Negative Hollows—if she ran into anybody hostile, she could render them entirely useless in mere seconds, leaving them to wallow in self-pity as she made her getaway. To be honest, she had found quite a bit of satisfaction in bringing various bandit and pirate groups to their knees. They needed to know that they weren't king of the world.

How long they stayed depressed seemed to depend on individual willpower—she'd found that the weakest ones could go for days without snapping out of their morbid emotions. Some simply fainted, overcome by sorrow and unable to bear conscious thought any longer.

The second ghosts she could create, explosion hollows, looked more like little mini versions of her Negatives—very cute balls with faces on them—but their looks could be quite deceiving. They were her primary offensive hollows, capable of exploding like bombs at the snap of her fingers. Sometimes, she fondly referred to them as "Mini Hollows." It wasn't like they cared what they were called, anyways.

The Possession Hollows were her newest ghost form—they looked no different from her Negative Hollows, but they glowed with an eerie blue tinge rather than pure white, and had an entirely different function. Capable of possessing any inanimate object, these proved themselves to be most useful, even if the power was difficult to control.

With such Hollows under her command, she didn't leave any of those Loguetown mafia goons unscathed—she'd projected her negative hollows throughout the city, making sure to scour every nook and cranny for cowards hiding in their little holes. With ghosts that could go anywhere, and the power to see everything they saw, it didn't take long to eradicate the entire group using some well-placed Mini Hollow explosions.

Perona smiled. Really, she wasn't alone anymore. She didn't need human friends, as others seemed to insist, because she already had a whole bunch of friends in tow.

"Isn't that right, Kumashi?" she patted her possessed teddy bear affectionately and earned another nod from him. One of her Blue Possession Hollows had been spirited into Kumashi permanently, and it was her only Hollow developed enough to be able to talk. However, most of the time Perona had Kumashi remain quiet, as a little talking teddy bear would surely freak most people out.

"Though that would be a bit funny, horohoro," she chuckled as she continued to follow the captain and ensign down the main street towards the harbor.

Suddenly, a marine soldier came running up to Smoker, giving a quick salute before shouting, "Sir! Reporting the presence of a pirate crew down at the harbor!"

Oh?

Perona inched forward, curious as to how the newly appointed captain would handle his first job. She wasn't the only one—all the townsfolk slowed down to see what the captain would do.

The Captain simply blew out a breath of smoke and asked, "The name of the pirate crew?"

"It appears to be the Boar Pirates, their captain Kreor wanted for 5 million belis, sir!"

"Gather the marine platoons, soldier. Tashigi, come with me," Smoker indicated as he began running towards the harbor. "We've got pirates to catch!"

"Yes, sir!" chorused the soldier and the ensign before each took off in their respective directions.

"Hmm, hmm," Perona twirled her parasol again. "The marine captain here makes quick decisions, hm? Horohorohoro…wonder if he'll be alright alone?"

Well, technically Tashigi was with him, but Perona didn't really know how good that woman was in a fight. "Hmmm…." Perona looked down at Kumashi and asked, "maybe I should go see how they do? As a temporary citizen of Loguetown, I may want to know how strong our marine protectors are, horohorohoro."

Kumashi looked up at her and gave another subtle nod. Perona gave an approving smile. "That's what I like to hear, Kumashi! Let's go."

When Perona finally arrived at the bay, out of breath, her eyes widened in surprise to see the entire pirate crew already beaten down and captured. One of Smoker's arms had turned into a white pillar of smoke, holding fast to the pirate captain who was struggling in vain and cussing up a storm. Perona pouted a little that she had missed the fight, but judging from the murmurs of the crowd around her, it had been a pretty one-sided one, as none of the pirates had been able to land a single hit on the marines.

Apparently, the new appointees were quite skilled.

"Horohorohorohoro, that should make things more peaceful around here," Perona gave a laugh.

But just as she was about to leave the scene quietly, Ensign Tashigi chose that exact moment to turn her head and spot Perona's unique parasol in the crowd.

"Oh, the vendor from earlier! Hello, miss!" Tashigi waved both arms to her, and instantly the crowd parted to see who the surprisingly skilled swordswoman was talking to. "We've captured the pirates who would have caused trouble in town! This is what we've been assigned to do here as marines, yes? We'll be doing our best from now on!"

Tashigi beamed, and Perona gave a pout. So, the silly girl was still thinking about what she had said earlier?

"Hmph," Perona twirled her parasol as she adressed the Ensign and the Captain, who had turned to look at who his subordinate had addressed. "I suppose the new marine appointees aren't all just talk. Why didn't the marines dispatch you here faster? Such incompetence."

"Eh…eh?" Tashigi's eyes widened, but Smoker's eyes narrowed. He looked Perona up and down, from her curly pink pigtails to her striped red stockings, and decided that kids these days . . . they had a weird sense of fashion.

It took a moment more for Tashigi to process the meaning of Perona's sentence, and as Perona turned sharply away to head for home, the Ensign beamed and bowed to her again. "We'll be sure to protect this town from all the pirates that come this way from now on. You can count on us!"

The crowds cheered their new protectors, and Perona hummed a little tune to herself as she made her way through the streets, leaving the cheering people and the defeated pirates behind her.

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Over the next few weeks, Perona found herself receiving Tashigi as an unexpected customer more times than she cared to count. What did the Ensign want with her, anyway? The woman would hang about Perona's cart, ask her how her sales were going and such, and then leave with an enthusiastic goodbye after getting an earful from her boss through her portable den den mushi.

And that wasn't the worst part. What really got on Perona's nerves . . .

"I can't stand it anymore!" Perona yelled, startling Tashigi in the middle of their conversation. Perona had her hands thrown up in the air in sheer exasperation, and the determined glare she fixed onto Tashigi did not bode well for the female Marine. "You!"

Tashigi jumped as Perona's finger came down to point accusingly at her. "Y-yes?"

"You're rotting my eyes by just standing there. Come here!" Without even waiting for Tashigi to respond, Perona grabbed the woman's arm and pulled her behind the cart into the room where Perona had decided to store her extra wares. She'd made one too many articles of clothing during her stay here, and her boat couldn't hold all of it lest it sank under the weight.

Tashigi, who stumbled in Perona's unexpectedly strong grip, looked up into the room and couldn't help but stare at this strange new world that greeted her eyes.

Frilly dresses, shirts decked with ribbons, jackets with hearts and crowns stitched all over the sleeves, pants and skirts of all kinds, hats and scarves sporting lacy patterns, even elegant gloves with detailed stitching decorations . . . all of Perona's recent works lay displayed all over the room. Stacks of T-shirts sat piled in a corner, and several ball gowns hung from carefully placed hangers. Tashigi, who had been accustomed to the standard marine uniform her whole life, reeled back at the bombardment of pink, red, and purple in her vision. Perona, however, didn't bother to worry over Tashigi's mental shock; she bustled around the room hurriedly, sifting through the material all around her in search of what she was looking for.

"There isn't much here, but I'm sure I had something . . . Ah-ha!" yelled Perona in triumph, holding up a few articles of clothing.

At the sight of the selected pieces, Tashigi blinked in confusion. "What are those for?"

"For you!" Perona flung them into the confused Ensign's face. Almost reflexively, the dark-haired woman caught the offering, before giving an unnaturally high-pitched squeal. "What? For me!?"

"Yes, you! I can't stand the sight of you in that horrid black jacket any longer! The shirt I'll tolerate—the swirly stitches brings out a certain character—but those pants! They're black! And not just any black . . ."

Perona pointed an accusing finger at Tashigi's jeans. "They're _plain _black! Are you trying to make my eyes rot into my brain? If you want to visit me so badly, I expect you to have the decency to dress tolerably enough not to be an embarrassment. Now change into those clothes so that I can burn those monstrosities you're wearing."

The guilty woman jumped when Perona started shouting, and her hands came up to clutch defensively at her jacket. "But, this is what I've been wearing ever since I became an Ensign . . ."

"There's no rule that Ensigns need to display horrible fashion," snapped Perona. "Take it off before I burn it right off of you."

"Ehh!?"

"Hurry it up!"

The burning fury in Perona's eyes told Tashigi that the girl was quite serious. A little uncertainly, Tashigi looked down at the proffered clothes in her hands, noting that they weren't quite as neon pink as some of the other products in the room. The jacket actually looked a bit similar to the one Tashigi had on currently, except that on the black material, there lay a skillfully sewn pattern of sakura blossoms. It was almost as if the flower petals would blow across the jacket's sleeves and straight out into the world—Tashigi silently marveled at the skill and effort put into the work. The jeans Perona had thrown at her had been dyed a deep purple, completed with a zigzag pattern that travelled from the bell-bottom all the way up to the thigh. A row of silk ribbons adorned the sides from top to bottom.

She realized that Perona had given her clothes suited to her tastes; these weren't nearly as bad as some of the more gaudy designs hanging on the walls.

"They . . . they really are beautiful, but," Tashigi tried to hand them back, "I can't accept these. They wouldn't suit me anyways."

Perona's eye twitched, and she leaned in close to the Ensign's face as she said, "who said I'm giving them to you? It's 60 berries for the jacket and 30 for the pants. I picked out the ones that wouldn't send you running the other way, so be grateful, pay up, and go back to the marine base wearing them proudly. And make sure to advertise to all your co-workers that these are Princess brand clothes. I'll be more than happy to help you hopeless Marines re-design your uniforms."

For a split second, Tashigi blanched as the image of the standard marine uniform covered with pink and red ribbons flitted through her mind. After having seen all the designs Perona was capable of, Tashigi wouldn't put it past the girl to try putting on laces and ribbons on their marine outfits if given the chance.

"But, these clothes," Tashigi said again as her face darkened. "They will only serve to remind everyone at the base that I am a woman."

She looked up at Perona, and a hint of sadness resided in her eyes. "As long as I am a woman, there are things that I can't achieve. I don't want others to look down on me for my gender, but if I wear these clothes . . ."

Tashigi bit her lip, afraid that she had offended Perona when the girl had been kind enough to give her clothes. But this was Tashigi's truth; she refused to allow herself to be thought of as weak simply because she was female.

"So what?" Perona's voice interrupted her thoughts. At the unmistakable irritation in her voice, Tashigi whipped her head up in surprise. "So what if you look more like a woman, huh? You _are _a woman. Are you going to go around declaring you're a man or something? Let me tell you now, there are things that only women can achieve!"

"Only . . . women?" Tashigi repeated dumbly.

"That's right! Who says that a woman can't have pride? You can be a woman, and you can have pride at the same time. If people think you're weak because you're a woman, then it's your job to show them just how strong a woman can be. If you can't even do that much, quit being a woman right now. It's embarrassing to think I'm the same sex as someone like you!"

Perona paid no heed to the gaping woman as she continued to rant. "I, for one, want to be remembered as a lady who achieved her goal with her own powers. Get it? I'm a lady, not some muscle-brained old man! Who do you think you are to say that I can't achieve certain things just because I'm a lady? It's _because _I'm a lady that I will go on to amaze the world! You," Perona put a hand on her hip, "what do you want to achieve?"

She leaned in closer, her glare demanding an answer. Jumping a little in surprise, Tashigi answered, "I-I want to take back all the swords . . ."

"Swords?" Perona's nose crinkled.

"Yes, the swords," Tashigi straightened, her voice gaining confidence as she recalled her vision. Her justice. "I want to retrieve all the great swords that are in the hands of evildoers. The swords are crying . . . ! I intend to take them back and give them to their rightful owners! Swordsmen who can use the swords for a just cause!"

"Then who says you need to be a man to do something like that, huh?"

"Eh . . . well . . ."

Perona nodded at her, smirking at the other as Tashigi's face dissolved into uncertainty once more. "If you're a woman, have some pride in the fact that you are! Once you've done all that with the swords or whatever, don't you think it'll be fun to laugh in the face of all those stupid men around you who live in the perpetual misconception that they are better than us? Horohorohorohoro!"

There came a minute of silence, as Tashigi stared at Perona's cocky smile. Then she looked down at the clothes in her hands, and in a barely audible voice, asked, "do you . . . really think I can do it?"

Perona's gave a scowl. This woman, she had a long way to go. "Hmph, how should I know? Whether you can do it or not, it depends on your own strength. Don't try to get answers or help from anybody else. That's how you defend your pride . . . as a woman!"

Tashigi fell silent once more, but as Perona watched her finger the sakura patterns on the jacket, the ghost girl allowed herself to smile in triumph.

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That night, Smoker looked up from his desk at the sound of Tashigi coming into his office and almost dropped the cigars in his mouth. Were those red _ribbons_ running up the Ensign's pants? And a shiny clip the shape of a flower was pinned neatly into the Ensign's blue hair. The jacket looked different, too . . .

"Tashigi."

"Y-yes, captain?" Tashigi fingered the clip in her hair nervously. Perona had stuck it in, calling it a special service, but Tashigi wasn't sure if such a feminine accessory suited her. Her eyes darted back and forth as she instinctively clutched her sword tighter to her chest. The Captain's long silence was starting to bother her.

Smoker gave another puff of his cigar, then said, "it seems you've changed your wardrobe. Just make sure it doesn't interfere with your duties, you got that?"

"Y-yes, sir!" Tashigi saluted. "Reports for today, sir! This morning, around noon, some local men were seen attempting to rob a group of travelers . . ."

"Ensign."

"Yes, sir?"

"That's a nice pin. It'll keep the hair out of your eyes when you fight. Keep up the good work."

She stared at her superior officer for a moment, but the Captain merely puffed another breath of smoke before telling her to resume her report. The hint of a smile the Captain had on his face, though, was enough; Tashigi beamed, her fingers no longer nervous as they toyed with her hairpin. Perhaps she'd go and buy a few more from Perona tomorrow.

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After that, much to Perona's delight, Tashigi also became a regular purchaser of Princess brands. Of course, since Tashigi was a marine officer, Perona often had to remake her designs so that they suited the woman's rough job—Perona prided herself in being able to her designs suit even the pickiest tastes, and Tashigi's tastes (necessities) gave her a new challenge.

She decided to stay a few more months in Logueown, just to produce comfortable pants and shorts specific to Tashigi's request. Most of them emphasized ease of movement: loose jackets or stretchy pants that still retained the feminine charm of heart or rose-shaped stitches.

As orders and requests began to pour in from the marines, Perona gave herself a pat on the back for her decision to advertise through Tashigi's wardrobe. She was receiving an especially big influx of requests from the female marine officers and soldiers stationed far and wide who had heard of Ensign Tashigi's recent popularity among her male subordinates. Some orders came from as far out as the Grand Line—Captain Smoker's childhood friend Captain Hina seemed to take a shine on Perona's designs and made it a point to introduce the Princess brand to all her female marine friends.

Even when Perona left Loguetown to head towards South Blue, the orders kept filing in through her personal den den mushi. She even got a call from Boa Hancock, one of the Shichibukai, who requested comfortable outfits for the entirety of the Kuja pirates. In order to take all their measurements, Perona had to personally take a trip across the Calm Belt to the Amazon Lily Island; she later found out that the only reason Boa Hancock had requested Perona over other clothing brands was because Perona was a woman, whereas most other famous designers happened to be men.

The sudden increase in orders from marines and pirates began to bring on some changes to Perona's designs, whether she liked it or not. The unnecessary frills and ribbons got cut down, and most of her decorations began to consist of simple patterns instead of elaborate laces and such. She still dished out girly dresses or elegant gowns when the rare orders came in, but otherwise, her products came to a point where she could even manage unisex or male outfits without making the male customers look like a pervert or an okama.

Her travels took her all around the four corners of the earth as she worked to spread her plushie dolls and clothing brands to every island possible. The weeks went by quickly as she busied herself with the orders pouring in; before she knew it, she had traveled through all four of the Blues, ending up back in the East Blue three years later.

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**A/N:** I thirst for reviews . . . please read and review, good readers.


	4. Princess' Vacation

**A/N:**Well, school has officially started, which means updates on this won't be happening as much. I guess I should have started it earlier . . . but anyways, please wish me luck, and hopefully I'll have enough time and energy to devote to this story while dealing with my first year at college!

Something to note: this chapter was especially awkward for me to write. I'm not sure why-but if you find that the sentences don't flow as smoothly, I apologize in advance. I did some heavy editting, but it just wouldn't turn out the way I wanted it to . . . please give me feedback and what you think.

And now, onwards with the story! Finally, Perona gets to meet our favorite main characters!

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**Chapter 4: Princess' Vacation**

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—3 years later—

"You want to go eat at the restaurant Baratie, so you'll hitch a ride on the marine battleship leaving tomorrow?" Smoker's eyes twitched. He glared down at the audacious girl in front of him.

She had one hand on her hip, the other on a folded red parasol, and a red shawl tied over her shirt with ribbons. Matching pink stockings and black boots finished off Perona's fashion statement. To anyone else, this might have been cute enough to elicit a nice comment or two, but to Smoker, these simply spelled more trouble coming along.

"Might I remind you," he all but growled, "that you just arrived in town today. Did you come to Loguetown just to get a free ride on one of our ships?"

"Precisely," came the flippant reply. "I found out that lieutenant Fullbody's ship is headed for the most famous restaurant in the East Blue. So, I'll simply get on that ship. I don't see what the problem is at all." Perona tossed her head and gave a knowing smirk, which Smoker had never appreciated. It managed to grate on his nerves every time, even after three years of her absence.

"Look here, brat. You have your own ship, you have your own map. Why on earth are you trying to get on a marine ship? Marine ships aren't passenger ships, you got that?!" he slammed his hand down on the desk, causing a stack of papers to flutter and fall over. "I don't know how you got wind of Fullbody's route, but you _will_ pay for a regular _passenger_ ship like every other law-abiding citizen out there. Don't think that the marines are your lackeys to do your every bidding at will!"

"Oh, really? Horohorohorohoro, I thought they were."

"You . . . !"

Perona crossed her arms and sent Smoker a contemptuous look. "How impolite. Are you saying that a lady such as myself should be forced to sail my own boat during my vacation? Or that I should _pay _a boat fare when there sits a perfectly good marine ship just 5 docks away from that grubby little passenger ship? After all the years I've slaved over my sewing machine to salvage the beauty of the marine's female population! Judging by the thousands of thank-you postcards your marine soldiers mail me every day, I certainly feel I have the right to ask for a simple boat ride. Besides, who do you think repairs all the rips and tears in Tashigi's outfits every time she gets into a fight, hm?"

"What? Thank-you postcards? . . . Those idiots! And anyway, we pay you for your services! At double the price from 3 years ago!"

"I'll expose your horrifyingly embarrassing past of Captain Hina and a chestnut tree!"

" . . . !" Smoker's face turned bright red, whether from anger or embarrassment Perona couldn't tell. Better if it was from both. She gave him a victorious smirk. "Well?"

Silence.

". . . fine. But don't expect that threat to work the next time, you hear!?" Perona waved it off as Smoker sputtered in her face. Really, this man would always be uncouth. He had not an inkling on how to treat a lady. She turned briskly and exited the office, but not before calling out just as the door snapped shut: "So . . . first kiss, eh? Smoker and Hina sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N—"

"Y%**&#O* %*~#U*%&**!"

"Horohorohorohoro!" Perona laughed as she swept down the hallway.

Predictably, there was no one around. Not many people liked to be near the volatile marine captain's office, and besides, his office was the only one on the floor. So, she didn't have to worry about anybody seeing her feet hovering two inches off the carpet as she flew past the paintings on the walls.

These days, hovering in the air felt much more comfortable for her, rather than walking along the ground. It felt wonderful to fly around with all her Hollows, spinning somersaults and cartwheels mid-air. It remained one of the only enjoyments she allowed herself to indulge in. She got to her destinations faster, too. Of course, she always made sure nobody accidentally stumbled across her airborne excursions . . . _almost _always.

. . . Well, she couldn't be careful all the time. It was a vigilance that took practice.

And to her credit, she'd certainly made a lot of progress over the last three years.

During her travels around the world, she had made a point to try to master her ghost abilities, just in case. A lady can never be too careful, after all.

Now, to her utter delight, spirit projection was a thing of the past. She could walk through walls, fly around, and even become transparent at will without ever leaving her physical body behind, though she couldn't turn completely invisible like her Hollows had learned to do.

But she would get there. Eventually. She just needed more practice.

"Hm?" one of her Negative Hollows suddenly appeared right in front of her, waving its blunt arms in the air frantically. She stared at it for a second, then abruptly dropped onto the floor right as Ensign Tashigi ran around the corner at the end of the hallway.

"Perona-san! I heard you just arrived in town!"

The Hollow vanished into Perona in an instant, and she walked nonchalantly over to Tashigi and gave her a once-over.

Red jacket with nicely stitched cuffs, check.

Cute pink T-shirt of Perona's own design, for comfortable movement, check.

As per Tashigi's personal request, a pair of black jeans specially designed for strenuous outdoor activities, check. Perona had taken the liberty to add a touch of dark red stripes on the pair, just because she couldn't stand the plainness of it.

After a few moments of tense silence, Perona finally gave an approving nod. "You've certainly come a long way from you horrible fashion tastes, Tashigi. You were wasting that pretty face of yours before, you know?"

Tashigi blushed at this. Coming from Perona, this was quite a compliment. "Ah, w-well . . ."

Perona leaned forward and tut-tutted her in a childish manner, giving her a smile. "Well, I'll be on vacation for a few days, so be sure not to rip up those jeans while I'm unavailable, got it? Honestly, don't get yourself into so much trouble all the time."

"Eh? You're leaving so soon? But you just got here . . . some of the lower-ranking soldiers have been wanting to meet you. They say they want to thank you personally for the work you've done . . ."

Perona waved her off. "I only came back so I could get myself a leisurely ride to the Baratie. I don't intend to work on _anything _in the next few days, so you had better not get yourself roughed up too much, alright?"

Though it was faint, the hint of worry in Perona's voice made Tashigi smile. This person's words were never honest, but always kind. In an odd way, Perona's way of speaking resembled Captain Smoker's—they both sounded spiteful, but underneath, they had kind intentions. She still remembered Perona's words in her shop three years ago—they were something of an inspiration for Tashigi nowadays.

"Of course, Perona-san, I'll be careful. I hope you have a nice vacation. But didn't you already have a boat?"

"I told you, it's _vacation_. Do you honestly think I can relax in my boat when my workshop is in there? No matter how cute and adorable and absolutely amazing my personal boat is, I'll be leaving it down at the harbor for a week so I can take a proper rest. _Away _from my sewing machine."

Tashigi recalled Perona's boat—painted pink and black all over, with a very pink and very elaborate design on the sails reading "Princess Brands."

Yes, Perhaps leaving it behind would be good for Perona. Maybe get a bit of blue or green into her system for a change.

"I see," Tashigi nodded. "Ah, by any chance, have you seen Captain Smoker?"

Perona smirked. "He's in his office, brooding over his pathetic love life."

"H-huh?" Tashigi blinked, not understanding.

"Never mind," Perona said as she lightly trotted past her, giving her a final "see you in a few days" before disappearing around the corner.

For the rest of the week, she would take no orders.

No jobs.

Not even a request for a princess-themed costume party could get her to give up her well-deserved vacation.

As Perona went off humming to herself, Tashigi watched her go, wondering just how Perona managed to fluster the immovable Smoker-san so much. Tashigi had seen Perona blackmail Smoker quite a few times back in the past, and she could only guess where Perona had found out so much about the marine captain.

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Perona took a good long look at the lieutenant standing in front of her. He stood tall and lean, with a cocky angle to his chin that Perona disliked immediately. Recognizing him for what he was, Perona cocked her own chin in a similar manner, effectively looking down her nose at him. She failed to realize that the sight of the large teddy bear hanging from her arm ruined her haughty pose.

"I'll be on this ship until we reach the Baratie. Let's hope we don't see each other," she introduced herself.

Fullbody's eyes narrowed, and Perona saw a deep, angry mark appeared on his forehead. This man had an even shorter temper than Smoker. "Brat, you've got a lot of nerve talking that way to the one in charge of this ship. Why don't you start by greeting me properly, and apologizing for your rudeness?"

At this, Perona turned a poignant glare on him. "Don't you dare order me around! And don't call me a brat, either, old man!"

"Why you little . . . !" Fullbody's face turned a light shade of purple. He opened his mouth, just about ready to give the order to throw her overboard, when Perona's voice froze him in his tracks.

"Horohorohorohoro, you had better watch your mouth with me . . . wouldn't want this lady here to know of a certain Amy-san, now, would you?"

The girl gave a meaningful smirk at Fullbody's date.

At this, Fullbody blanched and stared at Perona in newfound horror. How did this little brat know about Amy? He'd never even met this girl before, and she was threatening to spill the beans about his last affair to his current one!

The lady-san in question, who stood beside Fullbody in a beautiful evening gown, looked at Perona curiously, then at Fullbody. "Amy-san . . . ? What is that girl talking about, Fullbody?"

"N-nothing, dear!" Fullbody gasped nervously, eyeing Perona with something akin to terror. "Amy is . . . my little sister, and she may not . . . uh . . . take kindly to us going to such a famous restaurant without . . . her. Hahahaha."

He mentally congratulated himself on his quick thinking, but couldn't stop himself from glancing at Perona furiously. How dare that girl . . . !

"Be nice to me, lieutenant . . . horohorohorohoro . . ." Perona simply strode into the cabins, leaving Fullbody strangely diconcerted by the hollow sound of her voice. As he led his current date towards her cabin on the other side of the ship, he forced his mind away from the unpleasant brat, promising himself to make this trip as short as possible.

The sooner he got away from that girl, the better.

Inside her very own cabin, which Perona had secured through Smoker's generous (begrudging) orders, she let loose a couple of her Negative Hollows and chortled happily. They laughed with her, smiling their same silly smiles as they crowded around her in affection. "Good job, boys! That lieutenant had better learn not to leave his diary lying around on his desk like that!"

Her secret to knowing everyone's secrets was simple—if she sent a team of her Hollows out, there was nothing they couldn't find out. For Smoker's blackmailing material, Perona had kept an invisible Hollow near him during her stay here 3 years ago, eavesdropping on his conversation over the den den mushi with Hina. As for Fullbody, with the diary open on his desk to a very convenient page about dinner with Amy-san last week, it had been as easy as slipping through walls.

Now, Perona settled comfortably on her hammock, looking forward to a few days of peace and quiet on board a ship where no one would bother her . . . that is, unless they wished to have their life secrets hung over their heads.

"You know," Perona remarked, "I don't like that Fullbody's attitude."

Her Hollows stared at her for a moment, then began a frenzied dance through the air. The excitement was palpable. Their mistress had a plan in mind.

"I'll make him regret that cocky attitude of his . . ."

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3 days later, the lookout spotted the Baratie restaurant floating proudly in the middle of the sea, and Perona came up on deck to take a look at the most famous dining place in the East Blue.

"A girl needs to eat a fancy dinner once in a while," she told herself as she watched the fish-like structure loom closer. With the marine ship's speed, the journey didn't take that long, but any normal ship would have taken at least a week. Hence Perona's insistence for a _marine _ship rather than a normal passenger's ship.

As an added bonus, marine ships weren't likely to be attacked by pirates.

"It'd be annoying if I had to fight pirates while on vacation." Yup, Perona gave a self-satisfied nod, and held up Kumashi in her arms for him to get a better look over the railing. "There it is, Kumashi! Even though you can't eat, I'll eat enough for us both, ok?"

Nod.

She hummed happily to herself. Not even the sight of Fullbody's sneering face appearing on deck could dampen her mood. It had been ages since she had gotten a taste of first-class cuisine.

"Sir, it's a pirate ship to port!"

"Hm?"

Fullbody, as well as everyone else on deck, looked to the left at the lookout's unexpected shout. Sure enough, there stood a pirate ship, proudly displaying a skull with crossbones. Curiously, the skull sported a straw hat on its head.

Perona narrowed her eyes. And just when she'd decided that marine ships made good pirate repellent, too. If these pirates tried to raid the restaurant or something, she would make sure they got a full dose of haunting aboard their ship.

But more importantly.

'What a cute little jolly roger,' Perona thought, pleased. Nothing like those bloodthirsty-looking designs that seem to be so popular these days. A straw hat? A bit on the bland side, but she could appreciate the simplicity of the design.

Of course, Perona's own designer brand totally outclassed it, but still. For a flag on a pirate ship, she could applaud the effort.

"I've never seen that pirate flag before," Fullbody remarked to his soldiers. "Hey, who's the captain of that ship?"

At this, a boy came forward, waving his hands.

"Me! I'm Luffy," he yelled out confidently. "We made our pirate flag two days ago."

A girl with orange hair shouted at him about not saying unnecessary things, while another boy boasted about having painted the flag himself. Perona couldn't hold back a snort of laughter. It sounded unlady-like, but really, that boy, Luffy's face looked just like one of her stuffed animal's expressions—clueless but cuddly. Perona decided she'd model her next stuffed animal after this Luffy.

"Oy, I recognize you two. Aren't you those bounty hunters who only go after small fry?" Fullbody continued, pointing out the two men crouching below the railings. Fullbody sneered. "What, did you get captured?"

Perona sniffed disdainfully at the lieutenant's display of bravado. This man, all talk and no skills to back it up. Even after Fullbody beat up the bounty hunters Johnny and Yosaku, Perona made a point to laugh at him.

"Horohorohorohoro, you're one to talk, Fullbody. And just who is the _marine lieutenant_ who only goes after small fry?" Perona twirled her parasol, smirking at Fullbody who had turned his evil eye to her. "Or shall I go over the list your past achievements and see what comes up?"

The rage on Fullbody's face flared up, and despite Perona's threats, he made a swing at her with his iron knuckles. Of course, Perona dodged it with a flick of her ankles.

Having a ghost body made you lighter than air when you needed to be.

Giving her hair a toss, she continued in a no-nonsense voice.

"The highest bounty pirate you've ever caught was, what. 6 million beli? That isn't even worth a good bounty hunter's job. I wonder how you made it all the way to your rank with that pathetic record. The marine standards have certainly fallen over the past few years."

"You . . . little brat!" Fullbody made to charge at her again, but at that moment, his current girlfriend decided to appear on deck and ask, "Fullbody, can we go in now? I've been looking forward to this trip all week."

Fullbody looked back at her and grunted, forcing a gentle smile on his face that made Perona frown distastefully. She had thought Smoker had no class but . . . this man was just barbaric. Look at that face. It made her want to puke.

Not wanting to deal with him any longer than necessary, Perona jumped off the railings to land softly onto the deck of the Baratie. She gave a parting glance to the pirate ship next to them. They were all looking at her, as if not quite sure what to make of her, but she quickly dismissed them from her mind.

"Time to eat, Kumashi!" she said happily as she stepped into the restaurant.

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No sooner had she sat down a table when a loud "boom!" came from above, rattling the entire ship.

"What? Is it a pirate attack?"

"Hey, I did see a pirate ship outside!"

"But there's a marine ship out there, too! Surely they'll defend this ship for us?"

Perona looked up from her task of setting up Kumashi upright on the table, and noticed the captain of that straw hat pirate crew getting dragged upstairs by a few burly cooks. Oh my. Had it really been the pirates who had shot at the restaurant? For some reason, that boy didn't seem like the bad type.

Perhaps because he resembled Perona's stuffed monkey doll so much, but yes, he didn't look very evil.

Discreetly, Perona sent two of her Hollows out, one to where the straw hat boy was headed and the other outside, to find out what had happened.

"Hmm…but why should I care?" Perona wondered aloud.

Kumashi glanced up at her, then whispered, "cute."

"Hm . . . I suppose. Horohorohorohoro," she leaned back in her chair. The boy—his choice of vest and jeans horrified her, but Perona had a weakness for cute things, and she hadn't seen a boy who had looked and acted so cute in a while.

She would definitely make another monkey doll modeled after him one day.

Maybe even give him some fashion tips, if she felt generous.

While she pondered on her future project, she received feedback from her Hollows about what had happened. eavesdropping on the pirate crew's conversation, she couldn't help but give another contemptuous look at Fullbody, who had just entered the restaurant with his lady at his side. So the whole ruckus _was _that man's fault after all.

He walked in as if he owned the place, and seemed to revel in the admiring glances being thrown his way by the other customers. Perona just smirked.

"Let's see you fall to pieces."

"Hold on, waiter!" Fullbody called out as he stared at the wine glass in his hand. "this depth of taste…this hint of burgandy orange…this scent of honey-soaked grapes….it's…Itelzbuilgerstein. Am I right, waiter?"

The crowds murmured expectantly, and so did the lady sitting across from him.

"Dead wrong, sir," replied the waiter, in such a deadpan voice that Perona had to stiffle the chortle of laughter that threatened to break out from her. "And I'm Sanji, the assistant head chef here. All the waiters ran away yesterday."

"Horohorohorohoro . . ." Perona chuckled at the mortified expression on Fullbody's face. And she wasn't the only one. Even his lady friend giggled lightly as they clinked their glasses together.

Just this morning, Perona had overheard him pre-ordering the wine on his den den mushi. Realizing his plans to try and impress the lady, Perona had taken certain liberties, and with the help of a Possession Hollow, she'd completely changed the wine order right after Fullbody left.

Nobody called Perona a brat and got away with it unscathed.

Observing Fullbody's table for a while, Perona decided she had better things to do now then look at that unpleasant man's face. She promptly shut him out of her mind. She didn't even turn around when the assistant chef beat Fullbody into a bloody pulp, nor did she blink an eye when the head chef, who came crashing down through the ceiling, kicked the guy out through the doors.

But she did turn around when one of her Hollows—the one stationed outside—informed her that the pirate Fullbody had managed to capture just after getting out of Loguetown had escaped and was heading towards the restaurant.

That sounded like trouble. Perona frowned as a marine burst through the door with the news, only to be shot and killed on the spot by a man behind him. People gave a gasp and began screaming, but the intruder gave no mind as he walked in and sat at an empty table, which happened to be right next to the one Perona was sitting at.

"Hm," Perona sniffed disdainfully and edged away. The man reeked of blood and dirt, and he had a horrible expression on his face that made Perona have a strong urge to purify her eyes by burying them in piles of cute stuffed animals. Didn't that Fullbody have the sense to at least feed and clothe his prisoners properly?

. . . Of course not. He was a barbaric man, after all. Look, even now, instead of thinking about recapturing the pirate, Fullbody was scrabbling out the door, leaving the innocent customers and chefs at the pirate's mercy.

"Welcome, customer," one of the burlier chefs came over to the pirate, rubbing his hands together. "What would you like today?"

". . . anything. Just get me something to eat."

"Excuse me, customer, but . . . do you have any money to pay for your meal?"

There was a click of a gun, and more horrified gasps filled the air as the pirate aimed his pistol at the chef's head. "Do you take lead?"

"So no money, huh?"

_Crash!_

Even Perona jumped in surprise when the chef crushed the pirate's head into the table, much to everyone's astonishment . . . except his fellow chefs.

"No money . . . no food," growled the chef as he made to beat down on the man a couple more times.

"Hold it."

Perona got out of her seat and walked over to the fallen pirate. The big chef looked up at her questioningly, and asked, "What is it, customer?"

As she got closer and bent down next to the pirate's head, she crinkled her nose in obvious distaste. "You reek."

The pirate just glared at her, obviously too weak to move. "Your face is absolutely horrifying to look at. And these clothes! Must pirates all walk around wearing ragged pieces of cloth all the time?"

"What…do you want?" he wheezed out, his death glare still in place.

Perona got up and dug out 1,000 beli from her purse, tossing it into the hands of the surprised chef. "Take that money and go cook something for this guy. I absolutely can't stand a piece of filth like this lying around here and messing up my meals. As for you!" she turned furiously onto the pirate in question, who was looking at her with a dumbfounded expression. "Come with me, before I burn all your clothes off and toss you into the ocean for the good of the beauty of this world!"

She grabbed him by his shirt collar and dragged him out, making sure to call out over her shoulder, "I expect a full course meal to be ready by the time I come back. What's a first-class restaurant good for, anyways?"

As the doors swung shut behind her, a few moments of silence reigned in the room.

"Well, then, I'll go prepare a full-course meal," declared Sanji as he moved to enter the kitchen. But before he could do so, Patty blocked his way and poked a finger in his chest.

"Oh no you don't, Sanji. That there is a pirate, and what's worse, he's part of Don Krieg's crew! You ain't risking this whole restaurant by feeding the likes of him!"

"But you already received the money," Sanji pointed out, indicating the coins in Patty's hands.

"Sure, I'll prepare a meal. For the jellyfish hair _lady_," Patty grinned wolfishly, "But no pirate is gonna ruin the business on this ship!"

"It's a chef's job to feed someone who's hungry, pirate or no!" Sanji shouted.

"Feeding that pirate'll bring nothing but bad news! Sanji, you'll really risk this restaurant for the sake of a pirate?"

"He's not a pirate," Sanji growled, "He's a hungry customer. And he's even paid in advance. There's no reason why we shouldn't feed him."

Patty stood firmly in front of the kitchen doors, scowling darkly. "Make one move to cook something for that pirate and I'll throw you overboard."

"Just try it, crap-cook!"

"Enough!" the head chef, Zeff, roared out. "Patty, go take the other customer's orders. Sanji, get in the kitchen and make those orders. Everyone back to your posts!"

"But geezer. I need to cook that guy's . . . !"

"I said," Zeff glared at Sanji, "back to your posts."

Sanji jerked back, something akin to rage in his face, before storming into the kitchen and slamming the doors behind him. Luffy looked at the doors, then paused to make sure no one was paying attention before slipping out of the restaurant.

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"And . . . there! Even an ugly man like you can bring out something better with the right touch. Horohorohorohoro!" Perona laughed, looking up and down her latest masterpiece. She'd grabbed her luggage just before Fullbody sailed off, proceeding to give the weakened pirate a good dunk and scrub in the ocean water before stripping off his jacket and shirt to replace them with the ones in her luggage.

"You had better count your lucky stars that I brought a few unisex designs with me for this trip."

Gin, rather bewildered and too out of breath to protest, just stood there under Perona's critical eye. His headband had been redesigned—she'd done a quick few stitches on it to make the stripes look like blue dragons flying across his forehead. He now sported a blue shirt with water drop insignias stitched in carefully placed swirls, topped with a jean jacket that she had designed for the marines. He looked almost like a different person, scrubbed and clean and dressed to match the latest fashion. Perona gave another nod of approval. Her skills in this area were unmatched in all the four Blues.

She didn't seem to realize that she had just broken her pledge not to do _any _work for the next week. Kumashi, sitting against the railing off to the side, discreetly shook his head.

"You . . . why are you doing this?" Gin managed to question. His vision was starting to blur—hunger gnawed at his consciousness. "You even paid for the food . . ."

Perona looked at him.

He hadn't groveled and wept like some lesser men might have done in his situation back in the restaurant. It took a lot of guts to keep one's pride when food and hunger was at stake, and Perona respected someone who could hold his head up even in desperate situations.

Not like he would ever hear Perona say this out loud.

"Your scratchy voice annoys me. Be quiet," she retorted sharply before turning her head away.

Gin looked at her, and was about to say something more, when Sanji came around the corner with a tray of food in his hands. "Here, one full-course meal served, as per your orders, my lady."

He made an elaborate bow to Perona before handing the food over to Gin, who stared at the steaming mountains of rice and soup for a moment before snatching it away. As the man gobbled the food up, he began crying tears, mumbling about it being the most delicious food he'd ever eaten.

"It's good, eh?" Sanji smiled warmly as he watched the man eat, before turning his attention fully on Perona with an entranced smile in his eyes. "And you, my sweetest angel, your warm heart has melted my own, dear lady! May I have the honor of knowing your name, beautiful?"

Perona leaned back as Sanji leaned forward, not sure what kind of disease this man had been afflicted with. How was he able to dance around like that and still keep his eyes fixed on her the whole time? "Get away from me, creep!"

She whacked him solidly across the chest with her umbrella, and he crumpled in a heap, his eyes still twirling in love.

By now, Gin had finished up his meal and glanced down at the cook, asking in a quiet voice, "I doubt they let you actually cook this all for me, even if the girl paid for the food. Are you sure you won't get in trouble for this, cook?"

Sanji glanced up and straightened himself, lighting up a cigarette. He took a few moments to breath in the smoke, and then replied, "if a man's hungry, a chef's got to feed him. That's my job. And my lovely lady," here he turned to Perona and presented her with a few coins in an exaggerated motion, "your kind heart has been payment enough for this man's meals. Please, take this back and my own heart with it!"

"Hmm . . ." so that burly man wouldn't cook even for money? What kind of restaurant was this, anyway? Perona sniffed disdainfully and turned her nose away from the offered coins.

"I paid for the food and you made the food. There's no reason for me to get my money back. What am I, a beggar?"

Sanji blinked, before exploding into a storm of praises about her generosity and kindness and beauty . . .

Just as Perona made ready to give him another whack, a playful voice from above interrupted them.

"Na, I've found you. My sea cook!"

All three of them looked up to see a smiling boy in a straw hat. Hm? The pirate captain from before. What was he doing here?

The boy jumped down from his perch on the upper railings and stood smiling at Sanji and Perona.

Perona stared at him for a few moments, then realized something with a start.

They were standing on deck.

In the open.

In the sun.

Deftly opening her parasol with a snap, she gently placed it on her shoulder. If this conversation looked to turn longer, she preferred to be in the shade.

Luffy blinked at the appearance of the umbrella, before turning to Sanji and asking, "Hey, you should come be the cook on my ship."

"Wait, what?" Sanji gave Luffy an incredulous look. "A pirate ship?"

The boy nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! I'm gonna be king of the pirates, and my crew needs a cook. You'll be our sea cook!"

"I refuse. I have my own reasons for staying in this restaurant."

"No! I refuse!"

". . . huh?"

Luffy declared, "I refuse your refusal! I've decided you're gonna be our cook."

"Hey, wait . . . don't go deciding that on your own. At least listen to me."

"Ok, I'm listening."

". . . It's personal."

"Hey! You just told me to listen to you!"

Perona glanced back and forth in this argument, and finally gave a laugh. "Horohorohoro, what a ridiculous conversation. Straw hat boy, you'll need to do better than that if you're trying to recruit people."

"Eh? Like how?"

"Hm . . ." Perona glanced at Sanji and then at the boy, who stared at her with expectation. "Horohorohorohoro, not telling!"

At this, the boy gave a disappointed shout. "Ehhhh!? Why not?"

"Figure it out yourself, horohoro! You're a captain, aren't you?" Perona skipped around the deck, humming to herself as the boy fell into a confused silence.

At that moment, the pirate Gin chose to speak up. "Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt but, my name is Gin, and I work in the Krieg pirates. You said you're a pirate, right . . . ?"

"Shishishi, my name's Monkey D. Luffy! Nice to meet you!"

Gin nodded. "Right, you just said that you want to be the king of the pirates? Does that mean you're aiming for one piece?"

"That's right!" Luffy nodded, eyes sparkling. Ohh. Perona leaned in. That's a really nice sparkle. If she could incorporate it into her stuffed animals somehow, it would definitely enhance their cuteness . . . really, this boy inspired her like few others were able to do. If only she could get him into a pair of nicer jeans . . .

"Listen, kid," Gin continued. "You're still young, so I'm warning you now. Don't go to the Grand Line. You'll end up wasting your life! It's a dangerous place!"

Sanji looked up at this. "Oh, so you've been to the Grand Line, Gin?"

"Yes . . ." Gin seemed to recall something, and shuddered darkly. "But I don't know anything about that place."

"But you just said . . ."

"That place. It's a nightmare. All fifty ships of our armada were cut down by only one man!"

"Ehhh!?" Luffy jumped up, shocked. "Only one man took down 50 ships?"

Gin nodded. "That's the kind of place it is. Never, ever go to that place. It's a pirate's graveyard!"

"Hmph, you guys were just weak."

At Perona's voice, the men turned to her in surprise. Gin, especially, seemed furious at her statement.

"What was that?"

"There are plenty of pirates who get along just fine in the Grand Line. Either you guys were ridiculously weak, or the guy you ran into was just strong. Either way, tough luck."

"You . . . !" Gin looked about ready to murder Perona right there, but then seemed to remember that the food in his belly came thanks to her and Sanji. He glanced at the empty plates in front of him, and sighed. "Yes. Actually, though it kills me to admit it, you may be right. We _were _weak. So perhaps it isn't my place to say anything. But still, I can say for sure that it isn't a good idea to go there when you don't even have a ship's cook."

"I do have one," Luffy replied matter-of-factly, "he's right here."

"Don't include me on your own!" Sanji yelled back.

There was a bit more scuffling between Luffy and Sanji, but the conversation resolved with Gin boarding a borrowed boat from Sanji to head off back to his crew. Gin gave a bow of thanks to both Perona and Sanji before sailing off, and Sanji threw the plates leftover into the ocean just as the head chef came stomping onto the deck.

"Brat-cook! Chore boy! Back to work, now!" he roared out before stomping back in. Perona couldn't help but smirk. That old guy wasn't very honest . . . he had been standing there nearly the whole time. She didn't know about that burly cook who had wanted to beat Gin up, but these cooks . . . they didn't seem as uncouth as she first thought they were.

"Hey, you. What's your name?"

Perona looked up to see Luffy staring back at her. She picked up Kumashi from where he sat as she replied, "I'm Perona. You're Luffy, correct?"

He nodded and gave her a big smile. "Yup! Shishishi, I'm Monkey D. Luffy. You . . ."

"Chore-boy!" a thunderous chorus rang from the kitchen, and the temporary chore boy jumped a foot in the air. He gave a cheerful laugh and said, "Well, I better be going. See you!" before running off to his duties. It may have been Perona's imagination that she heard a crash, bang, boom, and the sound of expensive porcelain dishes shattering all along a tiled floor as soon as Luffy disappeared through the double doors.

"It certainly is noisy in there."

And at that moment, it occurred to her that she had no ride back to Loguetown, since Fullbody already left with the ship.

She let out a dejected sigh. Maybe the Baratie offered boat rides for their customers.

* * *

**A/N: **I don't know anything about wine.


	5. Princesses Don't Like Idiots

**A/N:**Sorry for the long wait, but I have even more bad news for my update schedule.

I've decided to take part in the NaNoWriMo program this year, and I'll be focusing on that all through November, which means this story won't get my time of day for a while. At least a month. I'll spring back ASAP in December, but in the meantime, this is it.

By the way, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, where all these people (both amateurs and professional novelists) get together and challenge themselves to write a draft of an entire novel in just one month. If anybody wants to join, it's fun and it's free so, why not? :D

Well, in any case, here's the next chapter of Ghost Princess the Pirate. I sincerely hope you enjoy it!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Princesses don't like idiots**

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Over the next few days, Perona decided to stay on board the Baratie as long as she had money to burn. It was a vacation.

A vacation.

Peering into her hot pink purse, at the wads of hard-earned belies, she repeated the words like a mantra.

Vacation.

She'd brought all the money for spending anyways. With her income, she could afford to spend quite a bit of time comfortably on this luxurious restaurant ship. Worry about trivial things like transportation later, she had told Kumashi, and the faithful bear nodded in agreement.

During her leisurely (and expensive) dining experience, one way or another Luffy managed to introduce her to his crew. She didn't really care much for them, but, well, call it curiosity. He snuck away from the kitchen just long enough to bring (drag) Perona over to their table. Though the head chef came to haul Luffy back to work, Nami invited Perona to sit with them for dinner and completed the introductions in the captain's absence.

"Roronoa Zoro, our swordsman. And Usopp," she indicated. One man nodded at her stiffly, the other greeted her with a dashing smile.

"How do you do? I'm captain Usopp, the greatest pirate captain that ever lived in all the four seas! I'm sure you've heard about my great battle with the legendary Werecat down in South Blue a few years back. Oh, yes, everybody was talking abou it . . ."

"Hn."

She lost interest ever before he finished the first sentence. Not even sparing him a cursory glance, Perona turned her attention to the dessert sitting in front of her.

Both she and Nami had a bowl of parfait to eat, courtesy of the love-struck Sanji, and Perona busied herself admiring the cute little smiley face drawn with hot fudge syrup on the vanilla ice cream. She hummed a little. This first-class restaurant didn't fail to disappoint her tastes. Usopp, looking a bit put out, climbed back onto his chair, whispering furiously about the time he'd battled the gigantic octopus in the deep seas and managed to return alive.

"So, did that idiotic captain ask you to join the crew, too?" asked the green-haired man sitting next to her. Roronoa Zoro, Nami had called him. Marimo, Sanji had corrected. Either way, he still had green hair.

She didn't care much for green.

Perona studied him for a minute, then leaned back in her chair with a bored expression. "Your voice isn't cute. I don't want to answer you."

"Huh?" Zoro gave her a disbelieving look.

"W-wait, did Luffy really ask you to join our crew?" Usopp stuttered out nervously, eyeing the freakish bear that Perona hugged in her arms.

"If you get rid of that helmet that makes you look like a mole-hill, I'll considering answering you."

The long-nosed boy clutched his helmet indignantly, yelling about how it was the legendary helmet of immortality.

Hmph, immortality or not, it was still as ugly as a mole hill.

"Well, did Luffy really ask you?" Nami asked.

"No, he didn't," came the immediate reply. "Why would you all think he asked me, anyway?"

"Why are you answering her so easily!?" Zoro and Usopp yelled, but Perona barely gave them a glance.

"Hmmm . . . horohorohorohoro, but aside from that, Nami, you would look very, very cute in this newest dress that I've managed to finish last week. I designed it fresh this spring—it won't be available in stores for another month! Would you like to buy it on a discount?" Perona fished out a huge, frilly dress the color of cherry blossoms and eagerly looked at Nami, whose pretty face and slender figure had captured Perona's attention almost immediately.

Nami looked at the dress, then bolted up from her seat so quickly that her chair crashed into the table behind her. Amid indignant shouts and crashing plates, Nami clasped her hands together excitedly. Perona noted—with a bit of pride—the sparkle of admiration in the girl's eyes. "Oh my, isn't that the popular Princess Brand design that's going around these days? It's been all over the East Blue!"

Perona lifted her chin up with a smirk, glad that there was at least one person who appreciated her work around here. "So you've heard of it? I'm the one who designs and hand-makes every single one of these Princess brand items. What do you say? It's not to any old person I offer a discount to."

"I'll take it!"

"Horohorohorohoro, you've got good taste, Nami!"

Zoro stared at the girls as they began a lively discussion about dresses, about looped ribbons and how to tuck in hems elegantly, on the merits of scarves or lacy patterns . . . the swordsman went back to his tea in a somewhat dejected manner. "Girls are…mysterious creatures."

Usopp nodded in agreement.

Soon after, Nami went back to the ship to put away her newly bought dress. Perona didn't particularly feel like sitting at the same table with Zoro and Usopp, so she left to get some fresh air on the upper railings.

Come to think of it, she'd stayed here for more than a few days now. She had to start forming a plan: how to get off this ship and back to Loguetown? Sure, she could fly there—her Horo Horo powers could pull it off—but Loguetown was far away. It would be at least a 2 day trip.

"Hmm . . . I need my beauty sleep," Perona pouted, staring out into the ocean. "And I'll get sweaty, so that's not good, either. But, I can't afford to stay here much longer. And I'm tired of having to make my Hollows invisible all the time . . ."

She pouted, missing the goofy friends that would always float around her whenever she stayed in the solitude of her apartment. Usually she kept two of her Negative Hollows out at all times. On her boat or in the apartment, it kept her from feeling too lonely. And sometimes she liked to have 10 or 20 of them all over the room, and they'd have a nice party or a fashion show, where she'd try on her new designs and display them for the approval of her ghost friends.

But now but she couldn't see them, only feel their presence. She rolled her eyes around gloomily, and tucked her beloved Kumashi tighter into her embrace.

Remaining lost in thought, she stood oblivious as the figure of tall, dark, broken ship loomed over the Baratie on the other side of the restaurant. Its shadow cast forebodingly onto the smaller vessel, but she didn't notice. Nor did she hear all the commotion going on downstairs. Crashes, faint screams, angry shouts, they all blew past her head. Not until a massive stampede of customers came pouring out onto the decks did she startle out of her reveries and rush to the foredeck to see what was going on.

What met her eyes was . . .

"Where did this huge deck pop out from?" she asked, to one in particular, as she landed onto wide platform attached to the front of the Baratie. She didn't remember there being such a big deck before.

Also, what was this mess? All the chefs stood in battle formation, armed to the teeth and glaring at a gigantic ship. From its deck, battle cries echoed through the fog. Wait? A fog? Hadn't it been sunny just a while ago? And that ship, it towered over the small Baratie, its ragged sails blowing slowly in the wind. The rigs balanced precariously, on the verge of toppling down in a mass of rotting wood. It was, in all honestly,

". . . one of the ugliest ships I've ever seen," she crinkled her nose in distaste.

Other than that, she noticed a few other sights rather absent-mindedly. Those two pathetic bounty hunters from before seemed to be blubbering something about Nami and the Merry Go. They boarded a small boat, readying to cast off. Some of the chefs were muttering dark curses under their breaths, handling carving knives in a way that made Perona's parasol look like a toy. Luffy's small pirate ship seemed to be missing altogether, and Perona's latest customer—a certain orange-haired girl—was nowhere in sight.

_Crash!_

The roiling pitch of the battle cries pitched into a higher octave of terror. Huge waves rose up, foaming angrily, and creaking masts finally snapped in two as the ship gave out beneath them.

Perona blinked, and her jaw fell open in disbelief. The huge ugly galley. Cut clean in two! She felt her eyes bugging out at the unbelievable sight. It had been split exactly down the middle, smoothly sliced, and the ugly masts and ugly sails proceeded to break down into further pieces of debris. Bits of rotten wood slowly sank into the ocean waves. Who . . . wha . . . ?

"Why do you keep chasing us!?" yelled out a voice. She saw that a lot of men had fallen into the water, dog-paddling for dear life. Those, she presumed, were the pirates who had occupied that disgrace of a ship before it got split clean into pieces. Several of them had managed to cling onto what was left of their ship, and stood there, looking terrified of the lone figure who slowly emerged out of the mist.

"Why . . . ?" repeated the shadowy figure.

Perona narrowed her eyes. That voice sounded unsettlingly familiar . . .

On a small boat, almost too small to be considered operational, sat a man, his legs crossed and hands folded neatly in his lap. He might have been out fishing for all he seemed to care about the pirates around him. He didn't even blink at the sight of a dozen pistols aiming for his head. The man's eyes roved around the scattered figures before him, before simply stating, "Because I'm bored."

"WHAT!?"

"Just for that reason, you'd chase us all the way over here!"

"Why you . . . eat this!"

Perona heard the click of a gun, and then someone took a shot at the man responsible for cutting the ship.

How stupid.

Dracule Mihawk's blade smoothly deflected the bullet. No sound penetrated the air—to the casual eye, a black sword magically appeared in Mihawk's outstretched hand.

A shocked murmur ran through the spectators. Most began to back away from the clearly dangerous man. But at the same time, a lone man stepped forward into Mihawk's range, the clank of his sword sheaths echoing loudly in the stillness.

"You're bored, right? Fight me," declared Zoro as he tied a dirty old bandana to his head. Perona gaped again, this time in disbelief. So, here was another stupid man. Were all pirates these days as clueless as these?

"Oyyyy, you!" Perona called out, running towards the idiot who dared to challenge the greatest swordsman in the world. "Are you stupid? Get back or that man will kill you!"

Zoro barely gave her a glance before going into a battle stance, crouched, his three swords at the ready. Perona grinded her teeth. She was trying to help this barbaric man from being slashed to tiny pieces by an even more barbaric man, and here she was getting ignored. How dare he ignore a well-intended warning! She didn't give straightforward warnings like this often, you know! Her face turned into a childish scowl, and she furiously whipped her head around to give him her best cold shoulder.

"Hmph, do whatever you want then! Just don't blame me when you get cut in half by that sword-idiot, you idiot!"

Why should she worry about someone she barely knew anyway? If he hadn't been a crewmate of Nami's—a valued customer—she would have just stopped caring a long time ago. That's right!

Perona glanced back at Zoro, and seeing him still in battle stance, she 'hmph'ed and crossed her arms over her chest.

At that moment, Mihawk, who had been staring at Zoro quite expressionlessly, turned his head to look at her. Perona stepped back reflexively, then caught herself and scowled even deeper. Giving him a "what?" look in defiance, she tossed her curls into the air.

"I though I might run into you in East Blue, ghost girl," Mihawk commented.

"Well, I for one never wanna see you again! Go back to your gloomy island with your ugly baboon friends and don't come ruining my vacation!" she yelled back, unconsciously floating 4 inches off the wooden deck as she did so. She was too preoccupied with dealing with one of her most dangerous customers to notice her ghost powers take over.

Some of the onlookers, however, _did_ notice, and rubbed their eyes to make sure they weren't just seeing things. Luffy's eyes began to take on a rather eager sparkle as he stared at Perona's airborne feet.

". . . I didn't intend to run into you during your holidays," replied Hawkeyes. He sounded almost apologetic, but his face remained too stoic for Perona's liking. She had never liked his looks anyway. They didn't seem to suit any of her best designs, and combining that with his unexpectedly stubborn personality, it made for a customer that was next to none in making her job so difficult.

Why was it so difficult, some may ask?

He always turned down her designs. Even minor suggestions got cut off with a sharp glare. So whenever she made clothes for him, they matched _his _preference, _his _tastes, and Hawkeye's personal choice of outfits were black, _black, _BLACK! Always black!

Just thinking about all the hours she spent laboring on depressing, black outfits made her seethe in indignation. How dare he reject her Princess Brand capes. They had been laced with red ribbons and trimmed with her most popular edging, the royal hearts! He'd even rejected her second-most popular design, the Ace of Spades, on his shirt! His excuse had been that they didn't suite his taste, but really, the only designs that _did _suite his tastes were those plain black and white ones with barely any trimmings on them.

The designer in Perona wept every time Mihawk ordered a new shirt.

Perona made an almost audible growl, wondering why she had ever taken the first commission from him a year ago anyway. "If you don't want to ruin my break any further, go back now! Right now. Don't kill anyone! Don't murder anyone! Like I want to end my long-awaited vacation sitting in the Marine investigation room—just because you decide you're bored or something!"

Mihawk's gaze turned sharp, and several gasps were heard all around, but Perona didn't let up her own glare. They both knew that Mihawk's blade would simply pass right through her body.

". . ."

Unless he used Haki. But . . . but, he had never attempted to use Haki on her after the first time. Not after having tasted 3 Negative Hollows in succession.

Ha. It had been quite satisfying to see Mihawk down on his knees, muttering about his own unworthiness. Of course, she had high-tailed it out of his sight before he recovered.

Mihawk let his gaze drift back to his little ship. "I've finished my business here anyway."

He got ready to board his ship, resheathing his sword. At this, Zoro flinched, and for some reason, sent Perona a deadly glare.

"Hey, woman!" Zoro gritted out to Perona, "don't interrupt my fight!"

She huffed a little at this. "What? How is it my fault that he's just too lazy to fight you, huh?"

But once again, Zoro didn't even bother to listen to her reply as he took a few steps closer to Hawkeyes, who paused and gave the younger swordsman a passing glance.

"You are a frog . . . at the bottom of a well," Mihawk began. "This is the East Blue—the weakest of the four seas. I don't know what sort of reputation you've built up in these parts, but you are no match for me. As a swordsman, you should be able to see it, right? The difference in our strengths."

"The difference doesn't matter," Zoro answered back. "I just know that I want to test my blades against the strongest. After coming this far, I won't let you leave as you please. Come at me!"

". . ." Hawkeyes gazed at him a moment longer, then turned to face him properly. Zoro smirked over the sword in his mouth. However, it quickly faded as Mihawk pulled out a small dagger as small as one of his fingers.

". . . ?" Zoro eyed the toy in Hawkeyes hands, confused. "What's that?"

"Unfortunately, this is the smallest blade I have. It should be more than enough to beat you."

Ohhh. Trust in that arrogant Hawkeyes to hit it where it hurts. Perona watched, mostly resigned now that Mihawk had a knife out, as the air around Zoro chilled dangerously. For the onlookers, the sight of the famed three-sword style pirate hunter in full-blown rage must have been quite a frightening sight. Perona just twirled her parasol.

With the green-haired man so angry, she knew for sure that he wouldn't beat Mihawk now.

And she was right. They exchanged a few blows, and the battle ended decisively one-sided. Even Perona flinched, biting her lip worriedy, as Hawkeyes slashed Zoro straight across the chest with his ridiculously big sword. That would definitely leave a scar . . .

As the green-haired swordsman fell into the ocean, Luffy charged straight at Mihawk, seemingly unaffected by the fact that one of his crewmates had been beaten so easily. Rather, he looked extremely angry, for the sake of his defeated swordsman. But Perona knew Mihawk wouldn't even be fazed by something like that. She floated up a bit more, face scrunched up in anxiety.

"You . . . you killed Zoro! I'll never forgive you!" he shouted in rage, aiming another punch at him. Perona's eyes widened again as the boy's arms stretched out an impossible length to try and hit Hawkeye's face. The punch missed, and Luffy went flying by to crash into the restaurant wall.

That. That had definitely been a devil's fruit of some sort.

Luffy bounced back up, ready to tackle again.

". . . stretch-stretch fruit?" Perona hazarded a guess, letting out a breath she had been holding.

"Wait." Mihawk held up a hand. "Your friend is not dead."

He glanced briefly at Perona as he said so. She frowned. What?

"I have not killed anyone."

Oh, is that so? Perona put her hands on her hips and flew over to where the elder swordsman stood, glaring down at him from the height advantage her ghost powers gave her.

"There's still blood all over the place," she frowned even deeper, than stuck one of her fingers regally up to point at the bloody green-haired swordsman, who had just been pulled out of the water by his panicking friends. "Just look what you've done! That cut will give him a scar for life! How do you expect someone with a scar over his chest to digest my Princess brand clothes. Are you trying to make all the swordsmen in the world ineligible for my designs?!"

She turned away and hurried over to Zoro, barely giving a glance at the 2 bounty hunters who gaped at the flying girl. Grasping the injured one by both his arms, she hauled him aboard their boat. Behind her, Luffy shouted out in concern for his crewmate. She hovered closer, clutching Kumashi tighter as she watched him breath heavily. His chest heaved with each breath, and he continued to cough up blood, some of it splattering onto Perona's stockings.

She bit her lip, then flew off overhead, now really not caring whether anyone saw or not. As she zoomed up into the sky, amid shouts of surprise from the useless bystanders, she hid behind her parasol as she yelled,"I can't believe you got blood on my clothes! And you're stupid too, to get injured like that! Serves you right, idiot bushido!"

Luffy flinched and looked up at her darkly. He looked ready to say something back, but stopped short at her next words.

"You better lie there and not move an inch until I get bandages. There's only so much blood the world can take before it becomes a pollution!" she turned around briefly to face her gaping audience, pointing a warning finger at the swordsman who stared at her in disbelief, despite the pain that wracked his body. "I'd rather gouge my eyes out than look at your sorry state for another second. I mean it, you better stay right there until I get back!"

And then she was gone. Silence reigned for a few moments as everybody tried to process what had just happened. Some of them wondered how heartless she must be to say such words to an injured man.

Surprisingly, however, it was Luffy who broke the silence. He grinned widely and gave a wave in the direction Perona had disappeared, yelling out, "thanks, Perona!"

Zoro, who had definitely seen the hint of worry flash in the girl's eyes when she made eye contact with him, turned his head to the side, only to flinch again as his wound throbbed. "Luffy . . ."

He took a deep breath. This time, he yelled with all his might, "Luffy!"

"Zoro-nii, please don't speak!" Johnny yelled, crying tears of worry. Yosaku, whose face was a picture of tears and snot, also shook his head as he tried to stem the blood flow on Zoro's chest. He paid them no heed. Instead, he lifted up his sword so that Luffy could see it clearly.

"Until the day comes when you achieve your dreams, I will never . . . lose again!"

". . ."

"You got a problem with that, king of the pirates!?"

"Shishishi, nope!"

Mihawk watched their exchange, then gave a small smile. "You two make a good pair."

He turned to leave, blatantly ignoring Don Krieg's half-hearted jibes at him, instead choosing to glance in the direction Perona had flown off. He really did need a new shirt—perhaps he would call her when he got back home to order a new one. As an apology for today's events, perhaps he would allow her to add one of her silly stitchings on the front as well.

How Perona would weep when she found out.

With a barely audible sigh, the strongest swordsman in the world disappeared into the fog, leaving behind a defeated but determined Zoro, a beaming straw hat pirate, and a peeved ghost girl who was currently flying through all the rooms in the Baratie—literally going straight through walls as she did so—in search of medical supplies.

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When Perona finally, _finally_ found the first-aid kit she had been looking for, she almost cried out in joy. Why had this important thing been stuffed behind the trash can of the kitchen? She'd used her possession Hollows in all the upper rooms for nothing, when it had been down here all along. Too worried about Zoro's loss of blood, Perona had opted to release a fairly large amount of her possession Hollows to flip the contents of each room upside down, moving on to the next when she did not immediately see the familiar red cross. It proved much faster than sifting through everything by hand.

At last, when all the drawers in the kitchen had been upturned, when no room was left unraided, she glimpsed the first-aid kit and wasted no time in grabbing it and flying straight out onto the deck.

"Eh?" Perona skidded to a halt, bobbing up and down in the air in confusion at the sight of the pirate Gin holding a gun to the fallen head chef's head. Unwittingly, she had exited the kitchen at a very awkward moment. Currently, she hovered a few feet behind Gin and his hostage. Wait, why was Gin taking the chef hostage? What? With her view blocked of the outside deck, she had no idea why the chef lay subdued. When had Gin come back, anyway?

Perona cocked her head in confusion. Behind her, her two faithful negative Hollow companions cocked their heads too. She no longer bothered to hide them. Too many unexpected things were happening—she needed to be ready. Her Hollows just looked happy to be able to fly about in the open with Perona again.

"Why won't you fight back!?" Gin yelled to someone out on the deck. His hand that held the pistol shook. She heard a crash and a multitude of voices shouting out Sanji's name—there was a thud, and she faintly heard the blonde cook groan.

"I won't…let the old man die," she heard Sanji's voice mutter, right before another crash cut off his sentence.

". . ." Perona looked at Gin's back, still undecided as to what was going on, when Kumashi wiggled a little in her arms and pointed at the man. Perona looked down at her favorite plushie.

"Gun, bad," grunted Kumashi. Perhaps, he was right. If Sanji seemed to be in trouble because of Gin's hostage, she was willing to help out.

He had made her cute and delicious desserts every meal while on board, after all.

"Negative Hollow!" she commanded, and the Hollow on her right flew straight forward, passing through Gin's chest before the man even realized that she was behind him. There issued a few screams a moment later—actually, a lot of screams, high-pitched and terrorized—from the men outside. She could guess that the sight of the ghost as it circled lazily onto the deck proved a bit of a shocker, but Perona was more concerned about the old man with a broken peg leg.

"What's with you?" she questioned as she flew over to help Zeff up. "I thought you were strong enough not to be taken hostage like that. How pathetic."

She scowled at him, but despite her stinging words, got one of her possession Hollows to bring over a chair for the chef to sit on anyways. The man looked at her in bemusement, then shook his head. "What exactly have you done to that man?"

"Hm?" Perona blinked. She followed the old man's gaze down to the fallen figure of the pirate Gin, who was currently bemoaning his life down on his hands and knees. The atmosphere around him felt morbidly depressing, and as the flabbergasted cooks and pirates out on the deck watched, Gin began muttering, "I'm sorry I'm alive . . . . I should have died a long time ago . . . . I want to become a piece of dirt trampled on the sidewalk . . ."

"EHHHH!?" the pirates yelled in sheer astonishment, not knowing whether to run for their lives away from the transparent specter hovering over their heads or to figure out what had gone wrong with their confident first mate.

Perona sniffed haughtily. "Hmph. What do you mean, 'what did I do to him?' I put him in his place, that's what. It's a disgrace if you need hostages to win, you know. What happened to your pride, Gin? Did you throw it away along with the jean jacket I gave you?"

This last question was out of spite. Indeed, the jean jacket she had provided him was nowhere to be seen, replaced by that moldy training jacket he had on before. It made her shudder, to think that men could stand to wear that kind of thing and walk out in public. She turned away from the disgraced man and looked over at Luffy, who was currently gawking at the negative Hollow as it swooped down to take its place next to Perona. Its tail end wrapped around one of her legs, as it had the habit of doing, and Perona gave the Hollow a smile of approval before asking Luffy, "So, where's the idiot swordsman who dared put blood on my clothes? And why is the deck on fire?"

"Uh . . . eh?" Luffy, still preoccupied with the ghost, took a few more moments to notice the first-aid kit that Perona was trying to hide behind her back. Her efforts didn't do anything to obstruct it from view, though, since it was much bigger than her frame. Luffy scratched his head. "Eh, he left. Is that a ghost?"

"What!?" this time it was Perona's turn to gawk. She had specifically told him not. To. Move! What was wrong with him? Maybe he really did belong in the idiot category. "Where!?"

"He went ahead to get Nami back," answered the boy, only serving to confuse Perona even more. She stared at him for a few more seconds, but again he only asked, "Is it a real ghost?"

"Of course! Can't you even tell a real ghost from a fake one? Tell me where that bushido went before he manages to soil any more innocent young women with his atrocious state!"

"Ehm . . . uhh . . ." Luffy tilted his head this way and that, then turned to look at the other cooks. They looked badly beaten up as well. "Do you guys know which direction Zoro went in?"

The unanimous reply came as: "How should we know!?"

Both Perona and Luffy gave a frustrated sigh.

"Well, whatever," Perona flew over to Sanji, who she now noticed lay fallen with quite a few bruises of his own. A close look didn't reveal anything near Zoro's level, but it looked pretty serious nonetheless. "I'll start by cleaning this bloody mess here first. Honestly, do all you men enjoy having a bloodbath or something?"

As she got ready to open up the first-aid kit, and as Sanji eagerly prepared to receive treatment from a 'lovely lady,' Paloo stepped forward to loom over the ghost girl threateningly. The big man smirked down from his height as Perona took out a roll of bandages. "Hohohoho, and just what makes you think I'll let you save him, girly?"

Perona didn't even look up. "Negative Hollow!"

_Swoosh._

Paloo fell forward, his giant frame crashing flat onto the ground as he let out a dejected string of mumbles. "I don't deserve to see the light of day. I was never meant to leave the jungle . . . please reincarnate me into a piece of moss . . ."

"Ahhh! Paloo turned negative!" there came a chorus of the man's pirate mates. One of them aimed a gun at the girl, panic written on his face. "You, what did you do to Don Krieg's best fighters!?"

A scowl overtook Perona's features. She turned swiftly around and suddenly flew right into the face of the outspoken pirate. The man yelped and fell backwards in fright; she gave him a disdainful look down her nose before saying, "your voice is the ugliest one I've heard in my life. Why don't you shut your mouth for the good of mankind?"

She swept that same glare onto the rest of his companions. "Negative Hollow—army!"

What happened next would haunt the Don Krieg pirates' nightmares for months afterwards. At least as many Hollows as there were pirates suddenly sprang out from the pink-haired girl's body, sprouting like water from a fountain. An endless stream of ghosts all swirled up into the air, blunt arms swinging as they rocked back and forth.

" . . . .!"

It was quite a sight to see. Perona gave a victorious smirk and pointed straight at the group of pirates mingling about the deck and in the waters. The Hollows looked at her, then at the pirates. Taking aim, the rose up higher, and dived. Straight down.

_Whoosh! Whoosh!_

"Uaghhh!"

"What in the . . . run! Argghhh!"

"What are these. . . !"

"Horohorohorohoro, wallow in the throes of your own pathetic selves!" laughed Perona, watching as one after another, the pirates fell onto their hands and knees in the very picture of suicidal thoughts. The groans of pure misery sounded almost overwhelming—many of the chefs themselves looked stricken, despite the fact that none of Perona's Hollows had hit them. Brief mutters such as "I want to die" and "Let me be a dead tick on the roadside" and "my life is the pits" filled the air as more than a hundred pirates fell into negativity. The Negative Hollows, their jobs done to Perona's satisfaction, vanished from sight once again, leaving the only the original two Hollows out to check for any survivors. One of them took a swing through both Gin and Paloo just for good measure.

"Wo . . . woooooooow! Coooooool!" Luffy exclaimed. The remaining chefs, Zeff and Sanji included, stared at the downed pirate crew. Whatever those ghosts had done, it had been done hard and fast.

"You, what did you do?" asked the head chef Zeff. Perona, instead of answering the question, simply gave the brigade of cooks an impatient glare.

"Hmph, if you've got time to ask me stupid questions, go and finish taking care of those guys. They won't stay negative for long, you know. I'm not doing you guys a favor twice, so you better do something before they all get back up."

At this, the chefs started. They won't stay negative for long . . . ?

"Onwards, men! Let's give those pirates a real beating!"

"Aye!"

With that, the chefs spent the next few minutes in an enjoyable game of whack-a-mole, smacking unconscious any and all pirates before they had a chance to recover. Even the giant Paloo, who managed to recover faster than the others, got taken down by a kick from Sanji. The blond cook began serenading Perona again, but before he could get very far, an unfamiliar voice roared through the air from across the water.

Now that Perona noticed, there stood another man on the ruins of the galley, his face contorted in anger. "What is going on here!? Useless men, do I need to do everything myself? Gin, hurry and get rid of that girl . . . whatever strange powers she used, make sure she won't use it any longer!"

At this, all eyes turned to Gin. Or, rather, where Gin had been standing only moments before. In the blink of an eye, the man had moved behind Sanji, delivering a crushing blow with his tonfas to the unsuspecting cook's back.

"Sanji!"

The weakened cook dropped without resistance, landing on the wooden deck with a thump. Gin retracted his weapons and said, "Captain Krieg . . . I would rather not take any more hostages, and attacking a young girl . . . just doesn't sit right with me. Would you allow me to finish this business myself?"

The deck fell silent. All eyes were trained on Gin as he stood over Sanji, ready to deal the final blow on Don Krieg's command.

The captain of the Krieg pirates wasted no time. "Uhahahaha, very well, then. Kill the chefs and take their ship!"

"Sanji-san, I'm sorry."

Gin gripped his tonfas and raised his arm, poised to bring it crashing down onto the cook's hand. But before he could, Sanji's boot shot up to connect with the man's chin with a crack. It sent Gin flying across the deck to land near Perona, and the girl promptly sent another Negative Hollow through him to render him useless again.

"I'm sorry. I'm worse than garbage. Please kill me now," Gin muttered.

"Ah . . . thank you, Perona-san," smiled Sanji. "but please step back. It's dangerous for a lady like yourself to be up here with all these dangerous pirates."

Even from far away, they could hear Don Krieg grit his teeth in fury. His men had been downed effortlessly, Paloo lay unconscious after having accomplished nothing more than setting his future ship on fire. It seemed that after that strange ghost-girl came on deck, nothing went according to plan. With a growl of anger, Don Krieg prepared the cannon on his right arm. "Prepare yourselves, worthless scum! With a blast of my MH5, I'll send you all to your grave. Even if you have some strange powers, none of you will be able to survive this! Uhahahaha!"

"C-captain . . .!"

"Don't do it, Captain Krieg!"

Some of the pirates who had managed to stay conscious, after hearing his words, began begging their captain to stop. Some of them started shouting in panic, while others fumbled with some strange-looking gas masks.

"What? If it's a cannon, I'll just bounce it back," said Luffy.

Perona gave him a weird look. "And how exactly would you do that?"

He looked around at her, then grinned. The next thing she knew, he had gripped his cheeks and stretched them out to an impossible length, saying, "shishishi, I'm a rubber man! Bullets and cannonballs can't do anything to me!"

Perona was taken aback a bit by this. It had been a while since she last ran into a Devil's fruit user. It was pretty rare. Especially in the East Blue, where all the bounties stopped at a pretty pathetic level.

But before she could say anything more, Krieg's voice rang out over the waters. "You, straw-hat brat! I'll ask you one more time. Between you and me, who do you think is more suited to becoming the king of the pirates?"

"That would be me," replied Luffy, crossing his arms confidently.

The other chefs glared at him. "Hey, why'd you have to say something like that!?"

"What? It's true."

Luffy seemed unfazed. Krieg looked really pissed off.

"Horohorohorohoro," Perona gave a laugh. This boy had absolutely no regard for the current danger; either he was confident and proud, or stupid and vain. She thought it might be the former, in which case she was willing to respect the boy a little more.

"Heh," Krieg had his strange shield held up in front of him now. "I'll show you the face of true power. Know the difference between a dreamer like you, and a real pirate like me! MH5!"

Something shot out of the shield and flew towards the Baratie. The pirates had either dived underwater or had gas masks covering their faces, and the cooks had all fled into the restaurant.

Luffy made to run towards the cannonball, but surprisingly, Gin's hand came up to halt the boy. "Stop! That isn't a regular cannonball. It's a poison gas bomb. Breath even a little of it and you'll end up dead in seconds!"

"What!?" Luffy began panicking then. "What do we do?"

"I have a mask, but only one . . . !" Gin grabbed a gas mask out of his jacket but glanced uncertainly between Sanji and Luffy, then at Perona, who stood a little distance away.

"Hmph, the best plan the men can think of is hiding behind some grotesque mask," Perona scoffed. She flew over so that she stood in front of Luffy, calling out a possession Hollow from her arm. No time to waste. The blue ghost hovered briefly, then followed her command and went flying into the face of the incoming bomb.

"Possession Hollow—rebound!"

In an instant, the Hollow disappeared inside the speeding projectile, making it stop inches in front of Perona's face. The bomb remained motionless for a moment. Then, at the wave of Perona's hand, it shot straight back the way it came from, this time aiming for its owner.

"What!?" yelled Krieg in astonishment. He quickly pulled out his own mask and ducked, just barely missing getting hit by the possessed bomb as it flew over his head to explode behind him instead. From the purple cloud of toxic fumes that spread over the galley's deck, the lone form of Perona's Hollow came floating back out. It appeared unfazed by the poison clouds bellowing around it. Krieg's tall figure had been obscured from view.

"What a crude shade of purple," commented Perona as one by one, the Krieg pirates resurfaced from underwater to gape at the poisonous cloud surrounding their captain.

Sanji and Gin stood silent, at a loss for words. Luffy ran up to Perona, staring at the blue Hollow beside her with stars in his eyes. "That's super cooool! How'd you do that, huh? Is that a ghost, too? How many ghosts can you make?"

Perona's parasol twirled gracefully over her shoulder as she flicked her hair. "As many as I want."

"Cooool! Hey, will you join my crew after I beat that guy up!?" Luffy pointed towards the purple mass of deadly fumes. The clouds were slowly dissipating into the air, revealing Krieg unharmed and angrier than ever.

She eyed the excited boy skeptically. "What makes you think I'll join your crew?"

"Because you're cool!"

The simplicity of the answer made Perona laugh despite herself. Luffy was really honest, if nothing else.

"You . . . !" Krieg gritted out, his anger beyond the point of measuring. Luffy looked over at him, then grinned.

"Alright! I'll beat that guy up, then Perona will join my crew with all her ghosts!"

"Hey, I never agreed to anything like that!"

But with a shout of "Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" Luffy had shot towards the older pirate, fully intent on defeating him and making the ghost-girl his nakama.

Perona sighed. What idiocy. Behind her, Gin and Sanji had broken out into battle again, and the chefs had come running back out to reengage the pirates in combat. All sides looked exhausted, with blood, sweat, and seawater running over their faces and soaking their clothes. Some pirates tried to spring an ambush on Perona as she stood smack in the middle of combat, but all their attacks simply passed through her body. She didn't even bother Negating them; it seemed more than shock enough for them that they couldn't touch or attack her body in any way.

Her frown deepened as Luffy's fist connected solidly with Krieg's cape of spikes. It might have made the fight simpler if Perona just sent her Negative Hollows through that Don Krieg scum, but a glance from Luffy made her stop. That's all he did, really. Just give her a serious look. But it was enough to refrain her from giving him a helping (ghost) hand.

"Hmph, that's why men are all idiots," Perona muttered to herself, twirling her parasol almost dejectedly. Luffy especially, and his crewmate Zoro, and even that cook Sanji, who had told her to get away from the battlefield despite the fact that she had displayed her capabilities just moments before. All of them, idiots who would rather die than have someone help them in a fight.

A smile crept up to replace her pout despite herself. As she watched Don Krieg's armor shatter under Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Bazooka, she decided that Luffy had been correct. Out of the two of them, the captain of the Straw-hat pirates was definitely more cut out to become the future King of the Pirates.

"The pride of the Pirate king, hm?" she said absentmindedly, "even if he's an idiot, I can respect a pride that big."

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**A/N:** And that's it for now. See you all in a month or so!


	6. Princess at Arlong's Ugly Park

**A/N: **This chapter is very long. Very very long. I contemplated dividing it into 2 chapters, but then I thought, why would I do that?

So here's a nice big chunk of a chapter for you all to enjoy. Please help yourselves!

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**Chapter 6: Princess at Arlong's Ugly Park**

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The ocean waves leapt up and down, threatening to overturn the small boat balanced precariously on the blue expanse. The sunlight shown bright overhead. Over the horizon, a barely visible patch of land indicated that the passengers were nearing their destination: Arlong Park. The home base of the one of the highest bounties in the East Blue.

A single man's scream rang out over the waters. A gust of wind carried the voice far away, drowning it in the embrace of the heaving sea.

"Why are you all so calm!?" shouted Yosaku. His desperate screech grated on Perona's ears. The rest of the boat's occupants paused, then went on with their business. It was a good day for some afternoon tea. Sanji had whipped up some cookies (with a side of roast beef) for Luffy, as well as a beautiful, 3-layered strawberry parfait for Perona, accompanied by his best compliments of her beauty and elegance and grace and beauty. Luffy sat munching his snack, too engrossed in the action to pay attention to anything else. Perona simply readjusted Kumashi in her lap before taking another sip of apple tea.

It was very good apple tea.

"That's a sea monster from the Grand Line! It must have been attracted by the smell of food! We'll be eaten if we don't do something!"

"Mmfg?" Luffy took a look at the mysterious sea creature currently looming over their boat. Some sort of cow with a hooped nose ring through its nose, at least 10 meters taller than their small dinghy's mast. Yosaku's face brightened at the show of interest. But it crumbled as soon as Luffy stood up, pulled his arm back, and socked the cow-monster in the face with a solid gomu gomu no pistol.

"Mooooo!" the boat rocked dangerously as the sea monster fell back, its tail fins thrashing about the waters. Perona didn't look too happy as some of her apple tea spilled onto the table.

"Gaahhh!" poor Yosaku yelled, "why did you do that, aniki!?"

"It's not getting any of my food."

"Oy, Luffy. That's not very nice," Sanji reprimanded him. "Even if it's a sea creature, as a chef, I have a duty to see that it's fed. Here you go, buddy."

The kind-hearted chef held out a plate full of morsels for the sea creature. A waft of a delicious scent floated up from the plate. With a strange cry, somewhat mangled between a fearsome bellow and a pitiable squeak, the monster leaned in close to take a bite . . .

Only to be kicked away by Sanji's Anti-manner kick course. "It tried to eat my arm, too! This crap-monster!"

"MOoooooooo!" cried the strange creature, this time clearly enraged. A redness dyed its eyes a fiery color. Its jaws opened wide as it charged the small sailing boat, ready to shred it to pieces and gobble up the impudent humans riding aboard.

It didn't get very far though. Luffy and Sanji made short work of it with a few more well-placed hits. The giant black-and-white creature fell away with a swell of sea waves, and Perona grimaced as some of the sea water splashed onto her boots. These were her favorite cherry red ones, too! With limited edition buckles guaranteed to last for years!

"Negative Hollow!"

"Moooooo . . ." moaned the sea creature. Sinking dejectedly into the waters, it began crying gallons of tears, not protesting in the slightest as Luffy roped it to the boat and commanded it to pull them the rest of the way. It felt too depressed to fight back. If any of the humans could have understood his strange cries, they might have been moved to tears by the sympathetic life this poor creature had led.

"That's what you deserve for soaking my boots," Perona simply told it.

Unfortunately for the cow-monster, all four of them had gone back to their tea, even Yosaku. None of them paid the slightest attention to the monster as it pondered the meaning of death, and eventually the subdued creature began carting the boat towards land. Yosaku sat mostly resigned to the fact that these people did not operate on the same plane as normal people. Their first response to a ferocious sea monster: worry for their food. _Not_ scream or freak out like most others did. And in Perona's case, she hadn't even spared the creature a second glance until her boots got soaked with water. Shaking his head, Yosaku could only hope to reunite with his partner soon before he was driven completely crazy by this insane pirate crew.

And though Yosaku didn't know it, Perona also sat wondering why on earth she was on this boat with the straw hat captain in the first place. After the Krieg pirates had departed, everyone had gone back inside the restaurant to treat their wounds. Somehow, the ghost girl had been reduced to tending to the wounded, despite her vehement protests. They'd thrust the job on her just because she had been holding the first-aid kit. Honestly, it wasn't _her_ fault that the unfashionable med kit had still been in her hands. All the fault lay with that green-haired bushido; if he had stayed like Perona told him to, then she would have treated him, tossed the kit away, and that would have been the end of it.

Instead, she got stuck treating _all_ the chefs employed in the restaurant, as well as Luffy and Sanji—the latter seemed especially delighted by this development (if the amount of floating hearts around him were any indication). Even if Perona just slapped some random ointment on their wounds before mummifying them in rolls and rolls of bandages, they all seemed to think it was better than nothing. The general consensus had been: "better than what I could have done."

Honestly! What kind of sea-side restaurant didn't even have a doctor on board?

"Your gentle touch has healed me more so than any amount of bandages! Ah, the goodness of your heart truly knows no bounds!"

That had been Sanji's comment regarding her ministrations.

"It'll do."

Courtesy of Zeff, as he gave the bandages around his head another tug.

"Thanks, shishishi! So, are you going to join my crew now?"

That was Luffy. For that, she had promptly thrown his partially mended vest at the boy's head, which she had kindly been repairing for him.

He dodged it neatly, furthering Perona's dissatisfaction towards him.

He had been half-killed and bloodied all over in the last battle. As a fruit user, he had almost drowned when he fell into the ocean at the end. Yet he didn't even seem concerned over his own health. She really wondered what his brain was made of. Even if she admitted that his pride and strength deserved some recognition, it still didn't change the fact that he was stupid. This recklessness would get him killed one day.

What, did he think he had nine lives?

Did he think himself a Hollow, capable of going anywhere and everywhere without fearing death?

" . . ."

Well, it really wasn't any of her business anyways. Yeah, he could go and die for all _she_ cared. Really, it didn't concern her at all.

However, despite telling herself this, she found herself asking (commanding) Luffy to give her a ride to Loguetown. She had already figured that if he headed for the Grand Line, Loguetown surely lay in his path. Accompanying him seemed like her best bet to get back home.

Yeah, it was her best bet to get home. That's all, right?

"I'll mend all your ruined clothes as payment for the ride. Be grateful," she had told him. Luffy simply smiled and pulled her on board Sanji's boat. The cook himself had been ecstatic that their journey would be accompanied by a lady, and though his tearful farewells with the other chefs had been quite a moving sight, Perona had to wonder if he had really been as sad as he looked. The man started twirling around her like a noodle, just moments after the Baratie disappeared from sight.

They were both idiots. Both Luffy, who currently sat gaping at the Negative Hollows floating at her side, as well as Sanji, who continued to spout hearts and love poems in such rapid-fire succession that even Yosaku took on a tinge of green on his face. Cookie crumbs hung from Luffy's open mouth; Perona cringed in distaste.

"You're such idiots, that you even make other people worry over you," she huffed at them as she spooned a strawberry into her mouth, "Do you know how much trouble that causes others? You should both be ashamed at being such a bother. Don't expect me to worry about you two as well. I'm just a temporary passenger on your ship, you got that?"

Little did she know how similar her words were to Nami's when the orange-haired girl had first joined up with the Straw Hats.

Luffy looked up from his cookies at her, but Perona opted to look towards the horizon, refusing to meet his stare. A moment of silence reigned.

Perona glanced back at Luffy, then looked away, then back again. She had pout on her face, as if the situation did not please her at all.

Because, she really wasn't pleased right now. It didn't please her that she was worrying about people she had barely met a few days ago. It didn't make her happy that Luffy's smile reminded her of a cute stuffed monkey, because that just made it harder to ignore him.

"You're all . . . idiots," she pouted, her arms squeezing around Kumashi tightly.

Luffy just laughed.

"Er, Luffy-aniki, that seems to be the island that Nami-aniki went to. We're getting very close," Yosaku's voice came from the helm.

All three glanced up to see that sure enough, the shores of the island were close enough to be seen quite clearly. Beyond the shallow bays and rocky crops, Perona could see a forest stretching inland. The village probably lay somewhere beyond that.

But weren't they supposed to be heading for Arlong Park or something?

Wasn't it that giant building over there, over to the left of where they were heading?

"I can't wait to be reunited with the beautiful Nami-san!" sighed Sanji. He didn't forget to add, "But of course, having traveled with the lovely Perona-chan has been more than enough for me!"

"Say another word and I'll have my Hollows haunt you for the rest of this trip," replied Perona with an irritated glare. This didn't seem to faze the love-struck cook in the least bit, but he did shut his mouth for a while. He'd clearly seen what happened to anyone who ran into those ghosts.

Luffy, who had finished licking the last of the crumbs off his plate, apparently thought this quite amusing. "Shishishi, these ghosts are funny. How do you make them, Perona? Is it because you're a ghost, too? That means you're dead, right?"

"Of course I'm not a ghost! Is it possible for a dead person to wear clothes this cute?" she questioned, quite offended by his words. But seeing as Luffy hadn't meant anything bad by his questions, Perona opted to simply huff in irritation. "Didn't you say you ate the Gomu Gomu no mi? Then you should know about devil's fruits. I ate one too—the Horo Horo no mi. It lets me make as many ghosts as I want. It's an elegant fruit perfectly suited for a cute person like me."

Sanji and Yosaku both turned to give her surprised looks. In all honesty, they had thought she really _was _a ghost or something. The only fruit user they had ever encountered was Luffy, and his stretching powers vastly differed from the ghosts powers that Perona possessed; they would never have guessed the two abilities stemmed from the same source.

"Hehhhh," Luffy nodded in understanding, "so it's a ghost fruit? And it lets you make all these ghosts, huh? That sounds like a lot of fun! You could make a pirate crew entirely of ghosts!"

"Why would I want to do that? Can't you think of anything better to do with my Hollows than go pirating like some barbarians? Honestly, the only thing in that monkey brain of yours seems to be about pirates."

Luffy raised his voice in protest. "That's not true!"

Yosaku also came to his respected straw-hat aniki's defense. "That's right! Luffy-aniki is always full of thoughts about his ambitions—"

"I think about steak all the time!"

A moment of silence. Only the cow-monster's low whine could be heard.

Luffy continued nonetheless, counting off on his fingers as he spoke, "and I like briskets, and ribs, and ham, and smoked beef, and braised beef, and roast beef, and, err . . . what other kinds of meats are there?"

Lifting his eyes from his hands, Luffy found that everyone had turned away from him to go back to whatever they had been doing before. While Sanji began cleaning up the remains of their teatime, Yosaku went back to the helm, and Perona finished up her tea.

Luffy grinned. "Hey Sanji, can we have steak for dinner?"

"Yeah, yeah. If that's your only demands for a meal, then I'll sure have an easy time being the chef on your boat," replied Sanji, taking a whiff from his cigarette.

Just then, Yosaku's slightly panicked voice was heard from the helm. "Hey, hey. Isn't this boat heading straight for land right now? This doesn't look too good!"

"What do you mean?" Sanji frowned, "we're _supposed_ to head for the island."

Yosaku's face, now visibly paler than before, poked over the rails as he pointed behind him frantically. "No, no, I mean, we're headed _straight_ for the shore! We'll crash at this rate! Luffy-aniki, you've got to get this sea monster to stop!"

"Ehh!?" Luffy leapt up to join Yosaku at the helm, with Sanji and Perona close behind. And sure enough, they could see the line of trees closing in fast, their sea-monster towing them through the waters at breakneck speed.

"Hey, monster, slow down! We've gotta go to Nami-aniki, not the forest!" Yosaku pulled on the rope in vain, trying to get the monster to stop. Perona sent one of her Hollows through the beast, but it only served to make him go faster.

Apparently, the sea monster had finally succumbed to his suicidal thoughts. And it would take its tormentors with it.

The passengers began panicking, looking for a way to cut the rope or untie it somehow from the boat.

Sanji sat sweating over the knots. "How exactly did you tie this thing, Luffy?"

"It's too late! We'll crash onto shore!" Yosaku cried, tears falling from his eyes. The poor man looked ready to faint as the jagged rocks of the beach rushed forward to meet them. The gleam of the seawater shone like certain death.

"Well, then."

At the unusually calm voice coming from behind them, all three men turned their head. They saw Perona standing coolly on the deck, her parasol whipped open and settled comfortably on her shoulders. She had her purse slung over her shoulder and a teddy bear in one arm, in all appearances out for a leisurely walk in the park.

"Since we should be heading for this Arlong Park place anyways, I'll be going on ahead," she told them with a smirk. "Perhaps Nami will invite me to dinner. I hope you catch up soon if you want any of the leftovers. Horohorohorohoro!"

With a final parting laugh, she took off into the air, leaving three equally dumbstruck faces behind gaping up at her. Even the sea monster noted her departure with sorrowful eyes—perhaps she had been the one he most wanted to bring down. But in the next moment, none of them had time to stare at Perona's shrinking form any longer.

_Crash!_

The cow-monster's giant form crumbled against the rock face, and the boat went sailing . . . straight into the air. As Perona watched from her vantage point, the small boat landed unceremoniously onto the treetops and proceeded to bulldoze its way through the foliage, the deafening noise of snapping trees and broken branches only outdone by the terrified screams of the passengers on board. She noted that they weren't slowing down. Perhaps they'd make it all the way to the village.

With a tilt of her head, Perona pondered on the wisdom of leaving those three idiots on their own. Perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea. But then again, Luffy had seemed to be in a hurry to get Nami back, and Yosaku had clearly stated that Nami had connections with Arlong Park. And since Arlong Park wasn't in that direction . . .

"They'll survive," she dismissed her worries flippantly. The two Hollows whirling around her also gave nods of agreement, reassuring her decision. "And just in case they go around doing something stupid, I'll even lend them one of my Negative Hollows. They really should be grateful for all the trouble I'm going through. Which one of you wants to go spy on . . . hm, I mean, _protect_ the three idiots and their friends?"

The two Hollows looked at each other, and seemed to come to some sort of agreement.

" . . ."

" . . ."

"Horohorohorohoro, can't blame you at all," chuckled Perona, amused by the sight of her Hollows, both pointing at the other one with silly grins on their faces. "I wouldn't want to go either. But no, this won't do. Here," she pointed to the one on the left, who retreated as if it had been stung, "you go."

" . . ."

The Hollow hung its head, swaying back and forth slowly in obvious melancholy. It really, _really_ didn't want to go. In contrast, the other Hollow began flying in circles around Perona, quite happy with its mistress' decision.

"Hurry up, you! Make sure to be invisible when you're in front of other people, and keep Luffy and the others in sight so that I can know what they're up to. If they don't know where to go, you lead them to Arlong Park, got it? And if something's about to kill them, make whatever it is regret messing with _my _escorts for the rest of its life!"

Dejected, the Hollow slowly nodded and flew off in the direction of the boat. Perona gave a satisfied nod, directing a confident smile down at Kumashi who lung limp in her left arm. "well, at least they won't die with one of my Negative Hollows to guard them."

So with a lighter heart, Perona turned around to take a good look at the so-called Arlong Park; it had been easy enough to find, especially now that she floated several hundred feet off the ground. It stood quite conspicuously, in the form of a giant building with "Arlong Park" painted over the front. The yellow building sported several layers of sloping red roofs, each capping one floor of the tower. Besides the Marine base back in Loguetown, it was probably one of the ugliest buildings Perona had ever laid eyes on.

"Someone should destroy that monstrosity," she muttered to herself as she flew towards the ridiculous tower. "It's a disgrace to architects everywhere. Is it possible for humans to make something so disgracefully ugly? How can Nami stand to go near such a place? I thought she had better taste than that."

The frown on Perona's face deepened as she came near the tower—something was happening down in the courtyard surrounded by walls. To anyone else, those walls may have been quite tall and a very big obstacle. To Perona, it was as meaningless as the Red Line itself.

Quickly retracting her remaining Hollow, she zoomed in close to the wall so that she floated just behind it, hidden from view. First, she would see what was going on. Some gruff voices could be heard, along with a familiar feminine voice and the shouts of a certain cowardly long-nose Perona had met earlier that day.

Perona peeked over the wall to take a look.

"I was never a part of your crew in the first place," Perona heard Nami say. The orange-haired girl had a knife in her hand and a determined gleam in her eye—Perona scowled at the shadow over Nami's face. That was no expression that a cute girl like Nami should have.

In front of Nami, Usopp shouted in disbelief at Nami's betrayal, while some ugly men with beach shirts lounging behind Nami laughed in amusement. Those shirts . . . Perona felt her eyes rotting at the sight of the techni-colored flower patterns. Ugh. She shuddered, and tried to think other thoughts. Those burly men with uselessly huge muscles. She vaguely recalled that people on the Grand Line called them fishmen—creatures who were part-fish and had strength greater than normal humans.

"But no sense of beauty," Perona commented unnecessarily. "The mermaids were much better customers. Prettier and sophisticated, with a good eye for fashion. Hmph."

Just as Perona decided to fly out and ask Nami what was going on, something very perplexing happened. Nami stabbed the knife she had been holding straight into Usopp's gut. Shock rippled through everyone in the courtyard, and Perona ducked back down in reflex at the sight of blood pouring from Usopp's stomach. The boy's eyes had widened in disbelief. Perona watched, confused and slightly panicked, as Nami pushed the bloody form of her former crewmate into the ocean, her expression cold and uncaring. Some of the fishmen said something about no longer doubting her loyalty, but neither Nami nor Perona cared about something like that.

What had just happened?

Why had Nami done that? Perona had assumed Nami was a part of Luffy's crew, but now that she saw more clearly, the symbol of Arlong Park proudly displayed itself on Nami's left shoulder. Did that mean she was a member of this infernal establishment? But the girl had appeared to get along quite well with Luffy's crew back at the Baratie . . .

Thoughts wandering over various possibilities as to why Nami would stab a perfectly harmless boy like Usopp, Perona felt herself getting a mild headache.

Headaches didn't suit her at all; they ruined her mood and made her grumpy. Not to mention the wrinkles they formed.

"Oy, Nami!" she called out, flying over the wall and zooming straight towards the girl. Ignoring the uproar she caused among the fishmen below, Perona landed right in front of Nami and stuck her nose in the other girl's shocked face. It wasn't like Perona to sit and brood over things anyway—asking Nami directly seemed to be the best way to solve her confusion. "Such an ugly thing to do. If you had really wanted to kill Usopp, then you should have left that bloody business to those ugly creatures sitting behind you. Some men they are, letting a lady do the dirty work for them. And why are you associating with these low-lives anyway?"

It seemed to take a moment for Nami to recover from shock.

Oh, that's right. This girl hadn't seen Perona's ghost form before. Not that Perona was worrying about something like that. Usopp had been stabbed by his friend and she wanted to know why.

"P-Perona, you just flew over the wall . . ." Nami stammered as she hid her bloody hand behind her back guiltily. Perona's eye twitched.

"Oh—no you don't! Both you _and _Usopp have become an ugly mass of blood. I tend to like the color red, but blood is such an unflattering shade. Come here! I'm cleaning both you and Usopp up! Possession Hollow!"

Without further ado, Perona called out a Possession Hollow and embodied it into a nearby recliner. For lack of better resources, it would have to do. While the fishmen still tried to comprehend what was going on (some had squealed at the sight of Perona's blue Hollow), the possessed recliner swooped over to scoop Nami up onto it; Nami screamed in panic as Perona took off with her and the recliner in tow, the ground dropping away at an alarming rate.

"Now, where would Usopp be . . ." Perona called out a few of her Negative Hollows and had them sweep over the area to find the missing long-nosed boy. With any luck, he would re-surface from a water source nearby.

"U-Usopp is dead. You saw, right? I killed him."

Perona glanced back to see that Nami had righted herself on the recliner, though she didn't dare move around for fear of falling off.

Since Perona's Hollows could only possess inanimate objects, Perona had to be creative when trying to move living things. This seemed to be a pretty convenient method. The recliner had been built to accommodate the large frames of fishmen, and as such the skinny girl currently occupying it had ample room to shift around and get comfortable.

"You killed him?" Perona asked, twirling her parasol around a few times.

Nami's eyes turned hard. "Yes, I did. And I'll kill you too, if you don't let me down right now."

Hmph. As if.

Perona purposely drew her Possession Hollow out of the recliner. No longer supported by supernatural forces, the furniture and its passenger succumbed to the forces of gravity and began to drop—straight down.

"Kyyaaaaaa!" Nami's terrified scream echoed all the way back to Arlong Park, abruptly cutting off only when Perona sent the Hollow back into the chair and halted their headlong descent.

As Perona brought Nami back up to eye level, she gave an amused laugh.

If Nami hadn't been willing to converse with Perona before , she certainly was willing now.

"What . . . what _are_ you?" asked Nami, clutching the chair so hard her knuckles turned white.

Perona noticed that the girl kept one of her hands behind her back, but decided not to comment. "I'm a girl, of course. Horohorohorohoro, or were you referring to my Horo Horo powers? I've eating a Devil's fruit, so I'm currently _much_ stronger than you. I suggest you sit there quietly before I decide that you need another one-way ticket down to the ground. Would you prefer that?"

Nami quickly shook her head. Satisfied, Perona paused before turning and flying off in a new direction. One of her Hollows had found Usopp—the boy was currently freaking out at the sight of the ghost, pulling out all kinds of exorcism materials from his pockets as he chanted purification spells at the smiling Hollow. Perona snorted. As if that sort of thing would be effective.

She also noted through her Hollow that the boy looked perfectly fine. Not dead, not injured—even the blood had washed off in the ocean water.

"Dead, hm?" Perona looked back and gave Nami a smirk. "What a lousy killer you'd make."

"W-what do you mean?"

Perona didn't bother to answer. Instead, she led Nami down to the ocean shore where Usopp stood shivering in his boots, his eyes fixed fearfully on the Hollow in front of him. The nearer they got, the more clearly they could hear him say over and over again: "begone, foul spirit! Begone, foul spirit!"

"Hmph," Perona snorted. "How ridiculous. I doubt even real ghosts would go away at such a pathetic chant like that."

"AHHHHHH! Perona's flyiiiiing!" Usopp's eyes all but popped out their sockets at the sight of Perona descending from the sky. Rolling her eyes, Perona let the recliner slowly land on the ground, then tilt violently to dump its passenger right in front of the long-nosed boy. With a yelp, Nami stumbled forward. The Negative Hollow that had frightened Usopp retreated. It flew close to Perona to greet its mistress, then disappeared easily into her outstretched hand.

"The ghosts went inside Perona!"

That's obvious. Perona gave Usopp an irritated glare. "Well, you seem awfully lively for someone who just got stabbed."

"Eh?" at this, Usopp finally seemed to snap out of his terror, long enough to turn to Nami, who looked ready to bolt away at any moment. "Wait, Nami!"

As Nami made to run back into the forest behind them, Usopp grabbed her right hand and pulled it up to look at it. There was blood dribbling down her fingers. "This . . ."

"Let go of me! Just leave me alone!" the girl slapped Usopp's hand away violently. Without another word, Nami ran towards the forest, leaving behind flecks of blood that had dripped off her hand.

Perona frowned as she watched Nami run off. After all the trouble she went through to bring Nami over here, she'd expected something more to happen. Was it too much to ask for an explanation as to what had happened?

Turning to the remaining boy, who looked to be deep in thought, Perona asked, "so, should I go bring her back?"

He didn't answer; he was staring at the faint trail of blood that followed Nami's path, his eyes wide with shock.

"Hey!" Perona flew close and snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Don't you dare ignore me!"

Usopp blinked, and then looked up at her where she hovered a few inches off the ground. "Uwaaaah, Perona's turned into a ghoooooost!"

At this, she bonked him on his head with the handle of her umbrella. "Don't you have a brain? That's not important right now, idiot! If you don't tell me what just happened, I will turn you into my personal slave and have you serve me hot cocoa every morning and night for the rest of your life!"

Whether it was the threat, or the bonk on the head that snapped him out of it, Perona didn't know. All she knew was that indeed, Usopp calmed down long enough to explain. Though he did keep glancing nervously down at her suspended feet every few seconds.

"I-I don't exactly know why Nami did something like that, but . . . it's clear that she saved my life! She stabbed her own hand when she pretended to kill me. I'm worried that there's something here we don't know . . . something important . . ."

Usopp trailed off, losing himself in his own thoughts again.

So, that was what it was. Perona's frown deepened—this girl, she was getting on Perona's nerves now. Stabbing her own hand? If that girl had even a bit of self-respect, she couldn't do something like that and expect everyone to just walk off without another word. Reasons or motivations, things like that didn't excuse ruining a pretty girl's hand.

Just look at Usopp here—even this coward didn't look like he was about to just give up and leave.

Glancing down at him, Perona decided this boy, although calmer now, just didn't look dependable enough at the moment. Well, based on what she'd seen until now, he did seem to have more common sense than Luffy, but only a little bit more. Just a tiny bit. That was it. She honestly couldn't bring herself to believe Usopp would be of any help to her right now.

"Well, then," she beckoned to the recliner. It obediently flew over to come and scoop up Usopp. The boy, finding his feet knocked out from under him by a flying chair, screamed even louder than Nami had, his whole body shivering uncontrollably. He lay on the recliner, arms and legs extended stiffly in his fallen position. The color of his face looked paler than the white sand below. Perona scoffed. "Why don't you try coming up with a plan, instead of just standing there staring like an idiot all day?"

"H-huh?" his face was nearly paralyzed with fright, but he still managed to shout, "Of-of course! I am the great c-captain Usopp, the only one to face an army of zombies who were planning to take over the world and live to tell the tale, defeating them with only a turtle shell in hand—"

"I don't need to hear it," Perona snapped, having become accustomed to Usopp's speeches back at the Baratie, "if you don't have anything better to do, I suppose I'll let you tag along. But you'll have to stay out of the way."

"Leave it to me! I'll be support your back against anything that comes our way . . . but where are you going?"

"Back to that sinfully ugly building. I'll beat some answers out of those muscle-brained brutes."

Usopp was quiet for a minute. Then, when it dawned on him as to _what_ the "sinfully ugly building" was actually referring to, he squeaked, his face turning a violent shade of grey.

Rather suddenly, he seemed to have a change of heart. "Ac-actually, hahahaha, I'm sure Luffy and Zoro need my assistance right about now. Yeah, my hero senses are tingling—they're crying for my help! You know, I've actually got psychic powers that can sense when my allies are in danger. I need to go help them! As the great captain Usopp, it's my duty to—"

His rant cut off abruptly when the recliner suddenly rose up into the air, with Usopp precariously balanced on top. "U-uwaaaa, how is the chair moving? How am I flying!?"

"Hmph, with my Hollows, this sort of thing is nothing," Perona put a hand on her hip as she flew up to Usopp's eye level, making sure she had the boy's attention. "Listen up. It may not be easy for you to follow such advanced directions, but do try your best anyway. Here's what's going to happen: I'll have my Hollow take you to Luffy in this chair. You can go tell him about what's going on, or go hide in a bush, or eat some dinner with him, or do whatever you want, got it?"

"W-well, I—"

The condescension in her eyes flickered into irritation. "I don't need to tell you how to do _everything,_ do I? Go figure the rest of it out for yourself! And where's my 'thank you' for giving you a free ride across the island? Honestly, you and the rest of your crew have no sense of gratitude. Maybe I should just drop you and let you walk all the way over . . ."

"No, no, no, that's okay!" Usopp waved his hands quickly. "R-right! Your Hollows, they'll take me! Thanks! There's nothing that the captain Usopp fears, not even ghosts . . . !"

"Then, I hope you survive! Horohorohorohoro!" Perona waved him off—the chair sprang forward and shot off in the direction Perona indicated, one screaming, terrified passenger clinging onto it for all he was worth.

Soon, he was nothing more than a dot in the sky, making a beeline for the Negative Hollow that Perona had left with the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates.

She hummed a little to herself. Now, to go back and deal with the eyesores. Flying up, Perona headed back the way she had come, head tilting this way and that as she studied the tall structure looming ahead.

"No, even if I painted dozens of hearts all over it, it would _still _look ugly . . ." she tried another angle. "Then maybe I could add a giant princess crown on top . . . no, that wouldn't match up well with those colors . . . argh!"

Her dislike for the Arlong Pirates began to increase exponentially. Perona refused to believe that Nami was a part of such a crew—a crew with zero aesthetic sense.

In no time, she was back at the courtyard, glaring down at the fishmen who stared back up at her in surprise. One of them, the fishman sitting on the throne in the middle, squinted up at her, clearly amused. A long, razor-tipped nose exended out from his face. Beady eyes of reptilian nature bore into her own.

"Hmm, an inferior human that can fly? That's the first I've seen, shahahahaha. Say, human girl, where have you taken my crew's navigator, hm?"

Perona remained silent as she drifted downwards, landing in the middle of the courtyard on the pathway that lay between the 2 giant pools. She folded her umbrella with a deft movement, dusting it off in a disdainful manner. Giving the fishman wearing the horribly designed beach Tee a once-over, Perona asked, "Is that so? Nami really is your navigator?"

"That's correct," he replied, his smirk arrogant, "the finest navigator of my crew, the Arlong Pirates. And whadda you know, I believe you just kidnapped her in front of our very eyes. I think you have a death wish, human."

His eyes glinted dangerously. A few of the fishmen started forward, grinning to each other as they approached the unsuspecting girl.

Unfortunately for them, she was one step ahead.

"Death wish? Please," Perona gave her curls a flip, "of all things to threaten me with, you use death? If you want to scare me, try flinging all the ugly beach shirts in your wardrobe at me. That ought to inspire some terror, horohorohorohoro."

Arlong narrowed his eyes.

And as if that weren't enough, Perona continued, "and as I've been meaning to tell you, this building needs to be deconstructed immediately, for the good of the world at large. My eyes have slowly been rotting into my sockets at the sight of those horrible colors—I doubt you hired professionals for this job. Let me guess: you and your crew built this yourself? An abomination, if you ask me. If you refuse to get that excuse for a tower out of my sight this instant, then that means Nami won't be re-joining your crew. How can I let her come near such a thing? It's a disgrace to all things fashionable."

With that final statement, Perona called out her Hollows; four of them flew out of her back to take their places on either side of her, still grinning their silly grins. Some of the fishmen started in surprise, but most of them didn't react as much as she would have wished. As she had suspected, these guys were from the Grand Line. People from the Grand Line often went unfazed at her ghost powers—plenty of strange powers ran rampant there, enough to make hers seem almost normal.

Her stare turned cold—her Negative Hollow had just relayed to her Nojiko's story about Nami and the Arlong Pirates. It served to answer most of the questions she would have asked Arlong and his men.

"Ghosts . . . so you're a Fruit user, eh?" Arlong sat up in his chair. "But it doesn't matter. Impudent humans like you, no matter what power they have, always live short lives when they cross the path of a fishman."

The fishman tilted his chin arrogantly. "Kill her."

In a flash, five of his crew leapt forward, weapons and claws at the ready to pierce straight through her fragile body. They leered at her, mocking her as she stood unmoving.

She gave them a haughty smirk of her own.

"!?"

All of their attacks passed straight through her body, and they stumbled forward, unwittingly passing through the Negative Hollows behind her as well. Three of them immediately collapsed onto the ground, muttering unintelligible things. The two others righted themselves and swung their sabers at her once more, again, to no effect.

"Horohorohorohoro, why not realize just how much of disgrace to the world you are? Negative Hollow!"

Her faithful Hollows flew into action, dispatching the remaining two with ease.

"I _am _a disgrace to the world . . ."

"Just kill me now. You're all better off without me . . ."

_Crack!_

The point of Perona's umbrella came down hard on the head of a fishman who looked to be part-trout or something. Not that Perona cared about the particular species. They all were un-cute, end of all stories.

The impact knocked the fishman out cold, and Perona kicked his body out of the way. "Glad to know you've realized your place. Hmph."

"Why you little . . . !"

Several of the other fishmen ran forward, swords flashing dangerously in the sunlight. Perona spared them a glance before jumping left and out of the way. Turning in midair, she directed a few more Hollows forward, once again incapacitating the pirates quite effortlessly.

"If that's the best you can do, then I'll be done before the others arrive, horohorohorohoro!"

With a laugh, Perona proceeded to whack the fallen fishmen with her umbrella one by one, managing to knock most of them unconscious in 1 or 2 blows. When she'd flattened the last of them, she twirled her makeshift weapon and placed it on her shoulder, clearly intent on taking them all out.

She had a strange premonition that the Straw Hat crew would be here soon. They wanted to take back Nami, but here the Arlong Pirates claimed that Nami was with them. Coupled with the explanation of Cocoyashi Village's plight, Perona knew Luffy wouldn't just sit around doing nothing.

Through her Hollow, she could see that Nami had run off again, leaving Luffy and the others behind.

Well.

Even if they were idiots, they'd figure it out eventually and arrive here sooner or later.

"But if they come looking for a fight, they had better get here soon, horohorohorohoro," she laughed, watching the entire fishman crew (except for Arlong) finally getting more serious. They looked wary and unsure, probably trying to figure out how to hit her when all physical attacks just passed right through her body.

"You can't ever hit me," she kindly explained to them. "You can't even touch me. I'll be looking forward to see how long you fare, horohorohorohoro. Mini Hollows!"

With a poof, a few of her Explosion Hollows appeared in her hands.

She smirked.

It had been a while since she'd called out these.

The gates of Arlong Park burst open to reveal two panting figures. They seemed out of breath, but nevertheless unsheathed their swords with a flourish and gave a resolute shout.

"Come face us, Arlong Pirates!" Johnny shouted.

"I won't forgive you for what you've done to Nami-aniki, you bastards!" yelled Yosaku, tear streaks evident on his face. Apparently, they'd heard Nami's story too, and came rushing here to beat up her oppressors.

_Crash!_

"Head kick!"

"Water bullet!"

_Crack! Bam!_

"Horohorohorohoro, it's no use, no use!"

"Face Palm!"

"Such barbaric methods. Mini Hollow!"

_Boom!_

. . . But alas, they appeared to be one step too late.

The Pirate Hunter duo stopped and stared at the sight that greeted their eyes. Several fishmen were leaping this way and that, trying to get a hit on the pink-haired girl in their midst. Most of their swings ended up missing entirely as the girl flew up and out of the way, or the blades simply slipped right past her body. Some white ghosts the size of apples zipped this way and that on Perona's command. Whenever she snapped her fingers, they exploded violently, knocking out anyone who happened to be nearby.

Burnt bodies of Arlong's former crewmates lay sprawled all across the courtyard. A few had been flung back by the explosions all the way into the walls, leaving spider-web cracks running all along the solid cement. There stood only 6 or 7 more fishmen. Of the fallen ones, those who hadn't been knocked out cold appeared to be in a state of utterly helpless sorrow.

"Water bullet!" shouted a fishman as he thrust a wet palm straight out in front of him.

A small drop of water came flying at Yosaku's face at breakneck speed—Perona had allowed it to pass through her stomach, but hadn't accounted for the new intruders standing directly behind her.

Yosaku blinked. All he saw was the fishman giving him a cold stare.

"Idiots . . . !" Perona leaned back and threw her umbrella. The cute devil brand weapon cut straight through the air and smashed into the water bullet centimeters away from Yosaku's face. Then, the umbrella's point speared the unfortunate man's forehead with a resounding _thwack!_

"Agh!" the man fell back, clutching his forehead tightly as tears of pain dripped from his eyes. The dangerous parasol flipped a few times in midair before landing quite harmlessly on the road a few yards beyond the gates, rolling away an extra few feet before coming to a stop.

Johnny, watching a girl's parasol get a clean hit on his partner, yelled in panic, "Yosaku!"

He quickly bent down to check on Yosaku's condition—his eyes were swirling. But besides the red swelling on his forehead, he seemed okay.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Johnny glared up at Perona as he shouted, "What do you think you're doing, attacking Yosaku all of a sudden? We thought you were on Luffy-aniki's side!"

"And to think I just save him from having a bloody hole in his face," sniffed Perona before dodging another karate kick from a man who displayed shark fins on his forceps. Quickly, she summoned another Mini Hollow in her hand and threw it into his face—the distance was close enough to be quite damaging.

_Boom!_

"Kuroobi!" his crewmates yelled, watching as the shark-man stumbled back, skin badly charred from the blow.

"Why, you . . . !" Kuroobi clutched his smarting face, eyes narrowed dangerously. The fishman loomed almost twice as tall and three times as wide as Perona, but the petit girl looked unfazed.

'That captain hasn't done anything yet, but everyone else doesn't know how to use Haki. I can beat them easily with only my Hollows.'

"Hey, you two idiots back there," Perona turned to Johnny and Yosaku. The two flinched when she addressed them, looking at her warily. Were they still going on about her parasol hitting the guy's forehead?

For only a second, she thought about explaining the impossible power packed behind those flying water drops. How they weren't really harmless. How her parasol had been their saving those two idiots would be grateful to her for saving their sorry lives.

' . . . why bother.'

She sniffed and performed a midair twirl to her left, narrowly dodging a scimitar as it swung inches from her head. "why are you the only ones here, hm? You're absolutely useless right now; either run and get somebody more useful, or, just run. I don't feel like flying around trying to keep you alive here. Go on, shoo."

"We, we can't do that!" Johnny yelled, enraged. "We're here to set Nami-aniki free from the monsters who have oppressed her for so long!"

Even Yosaku had recovered enough to join in his shouting. "That's right! We, the strongest bounty hunters in the East Blue, will be the ones to take down the Arlong pirates and . . . !"

_Boom!_

Perona put her hands on her hips. She watched skeptically as the shock wave from Kuroobi's palm thrust rammed into the loud-mouthed duo, sending them flying out onto the road.

'Honestly,' she sighed inwardly. Men never listen, the stubborn mules. It's excusable for strong people because they can actually back their words up with action, but for weaklings like those . . .

"Whatever. Just stay out there and don't come back in, you got that?" she said. With a wave of her hand, two Blue Hollows drifted out of her arms. They dissolved into the doors, and the entrance briefly glowed an eerie blue before slowly beginning to close of its own accord. Johnny, nose bloody and face battered, leapt up in panic as the entrance to Arlong Park got narrower and narrower. Stumbling, he reached out a hand to stop the doors from closing, but the gates slammed shut mercilessly, locking the two intruders out. Satisfied, Perona turned back to the remaining fishmen, whose numbers had now shrunken to four.

Even while she locked the bounty hunters out, the pirates had kept up their unsuccessful attacks. Looking down at her unscathed body, she had to wonder whether these men had brains the size of fish as well.

If attacks didn't work the first time, what made them think it'd work the next 100 times?

"How pathetic, the lot of you," she spoke to the panting fishmen. Arlong looked on, still relaxed in his chair.

"Can't you see none of your attacks will work on me? Horohorohorohoro, at least try to vary your strategies a bit—"

_Clank._

" . . . hm?" Perona felt herself suddenly drop to the ground. She stumbled. Her body felt heavy—the strength in her limbs seemed to be sapping away. All of a sudden, her Hollows had disappeared to leave her all alone in the middle of the courtyard, surrounded by fishmen who began to laugh at her as she stared at them blankly.

Her eyes traveled to her left wrist. There, on her arm, hung a chain of blue-green shackles. The handcuff encased her wrist, closed and locked tightly by a fishman who stood grinning behind her.

He smirked, hefting his dagger. "Let's see you act high and mighty without your devil's fruit powers!"

By reflex, Perona leapt to dodge the incoming swing, only to stumble back unceremoniously as gravity pulled her down. The mocking laughter behind her got louder. The sound of their voices created a cacophony with the shouts of Johnny and Yosaku pounding on the door. Her poor delicate ears. She clenched her mouth shut in distaste.

Arlong's laugh grated on her nerves the most. She told him so. "Stop laughing, uncultured swine. Your voices are ruining my ear canals."

"Face Palm!" Kuroobi thrust the flat of his hand forward. The impact, even when she jumped to the right, sent her crashing into the far wall, creating more cracks as her back collided with the unrelenting cement.

She coughed, tasting blood in her mouth.

Staggering slightly, she got back to her feet, annoyed that Arlong's voice still rang in her ears. The sound of the shackles chained to her wrists did nothing to lighten her mood. "Shahahaha, let's see how long you last with a seastone cuff on you. The trouble with you devil's fruit users, is that you get too cocky with a power that isn't even yours. You're no different than the other foolish humans who think they're invincible while relying on some fruit's abilities! You'll pay for your stupidity . . . with your life!"

Perona pulled out a pink handkerchief from her skirt pocket and wiped her mouth, frowning at the smudge of red that came off. Blood . . . it really was an unflattering color.

Pulling herself upright, she began walking back towards her opponents, unhappy scowl on her face. Now she really regretted throwing her parasol at Yosaku; it lay beyond the doors now, out of her reach.

Two of the fishmen came running to meet her, one with a giant mace held high and the other with brass knuckle guards on his fists. They seemed almost gleeful, ready to exact vengeance for their fallen comrades on the vulnerable girl.

She stopped, gave a haughty smirk, and twirled to her left, neatly dodging the mace as it swung near her stomach. Then, she jumped up, flipping straight over their heads to land behind them, her arms held straight out as if performing an acrobatic show.

She still felt weak, but even without her ghost powers, she could handle midair stunts with relative ease. It was only the first few seconds she needed to get adjusted to gravity's heavy pull. After that, well, it wasn't the best situation, but she could manage. It would take more than some handcuffs to discourage the owner of Princess Brands.

"Let me ask you something, you fishheads," she sniffed as she jumped again, this time to avoid a karate kick from the shark-man from behind. "You didn't honestly think that a seastone cuff would be enough to overpower me?"

Ducking down, she rolled straight through the legs of one of her assailants, who leaped back in surprise.

Arlong, seeing as she was still dodging around quite effortlessly, narrowed his eyes again. "What do you mean, human?"

Perona spun to the right, letting a sword slip inches past her arm. "Horohorohorohoro, did you brainless fish-boys think that I was a Logia? I'm a Paramecia, imbeciles, and a Paramecia type that doesn't naturally let my body turn into a different substance. The efforts I put into turning myself into a Hollow . . ."

It was true. Even the Devil's Fruit catalog didn't list "turning the user's body into a ghost" as one of the Horo Horo no mi's powers.

It had taken practice.

More practice than proud Perona cared to admit to.

The years she'd spent communing with nobody but her Hollows, in an attempt to understand the substance they were made out of. The bare-handed encounters with bandits and pirates who were lucky enough to possess some seastone handcuffs they'd stolen from fallen marines. The hours of training in the air, to be able to not only keep afloat but also move around freely in whatever way she wanted to.

Those mid-air tumbles and tricks didn't just come as a free gift with the fruit—she'd perfected all of her movements through hard work and practice. It was an unlady-like process, full of sweat and dirt and other gross things, but she gladly threw herself into self-training, knowing that the results would make her far more elegant and graceful than before.

Leaning back to avoid a punch, she grabbed the wrist in front of her and pulled it forward, allowing the attacker's momentum to send him crashing face-first into the ground. The sharp heel of her boot stomped hard onto the fallen fishman's neck.

The unfortunate soul gurgled, twitched, and fainted clean away.

Executed beautifully, her counter-attack caused the remaining three to pause momentarily in their actions. This was the first time the small woman had shown herself capable of hand-to-hand combat.

Perona turned a derisive glare on Arlong, her voice rising in pitch. "You think you have the right to look down on my hard-earned powers!?"

Arlong snapped at his subordinates, "what are you doing, losing to one weakened human girl!? Kill her now!"

A fishman with poofy lips launched forward, swinging the hammer in his hands towards Perona's skull. The girl sidestepped out of the way, yelling, "don't you dare get your ugly face closer to me!"

She backed away rapidly, dead serious about her desire not to see Chew's face up close. It was the only face she had ever seen that made hearts look disgusting.

Just then, without warning, a powerful blow slammed into her back from behind. Biting her lip to keep from making any disgraceful noises, Perona crumbled in a heap, feeling a throbbing pain sear up her spine.

"Urgh . . ." cursing herself at the crude sound coming from her mouth, she looked behind her to see Arlong sitting upright, a handful of water dripping from his hands.

A water bullet.

She frowned, but didn't have time to say anything more as a foot slammed into her stomach, sending her flying. With considerable effort, she rolled along the ground to land in a crouched position, springing up just in time to avoid another one of Arlong's water bullets.

Gasping for air, Perona dodged another two bullets before feeling the weight of a hammer descend on her head. Her ears heard a crash. Stars exploded in her vision; as she fell, she glimpsed her beloved Kumashi lying limp where she had dropped him earlier. The Possession Hollow had left him, leaving him incapable of words or action. Voices murmured in the background, and Perona thought there were some gasps.

Above her head, Chew lifted his hammer again to deal the final blow. But just as his hammer descended, a shaky voice yelled "explosion star!" and a cloud of smoke erupted in his vision, blinding him momentarily.

"What the?!" Chew waved his hands to clear the smoke. When he looked down, the girl no longer lay fallen at his feet.

Perona felt herself flying through the air again. More specifically, something had grasped her shawl and pulled her so hard that her body went airborne—the sky sure looked blue today.

As she felt the spots in her vision clear, she landed with a soft _whump_ in someone's arms, feeling dizzy and slightly disoriented. It wasn't everyday that she took to the air without the aid of her horo horo powers.

"Eh . . . ?"

"Sorry we're late," said Luffy, his normally cheerful expression had turned stone serious. For once. Perona would have commented smartly, but all she got out of her mouth was a cough and another glob of blood. Her head throbbed uncontrollably. She couldn't think straight enough to say anything worth mentioning.

As such, the fact that she was being held in Luffy's arms, princess-style, went largely unnoticed by her. If she had been more aware, she would most certainly have demanded release daring to lay hands on her, maybe she would have extracted some fees for his shirt repairs as well.

Instead, she managed to mumble something about that sounded like "if you know it, do better next time" before sinking into a half-conscious state.

She didn't see Luffy nod, neither did she notice his eyes darkening angrily.

"We'll handle the rest," she heard someone else say. It reverberated deep in her chest—a low baritone.

"Those crap-fish, doing this to my beautiful Perona-chan! I'll send them all to kitchen hell as boiled sushi!"

"Quiet, idiots . . ." she hissed, as another throb hit her brain.

It had been quite a while since she'd taken a beating this hard—her body refused to let her ignore its state. She felt herself being passed from one pair of arms to another; this time, she found herself staring up at a spinning pinwheel affixed on the hat of an old man.

"This girl needs treatment. She's taken quite a beating . . ." a woman's voice said. Perona closed her eyes, trying to block out the noise. All this pain and noise . . . it couldn't be good for her skin.

"Those pirates . . . ! Scum of the earth, if they can maul a girl this badly and not feel a thing about it," the pinwheel spoke.

"But Gen-san, look . . . all those fishmen on the ground . . . !"

"She's right, Gen-san! What those two bounty hunters said must be true. This girl was fighting them off by herself!"

". . . whether or not she did, the important thing right now is the get her treated. Hey, miss," the pinwheel disappeared from view, to be replaced by the face of an old man with scars running across his face. Perona took a moment to realize he was talking to her. "We'll have the village doctor treat you right now. Just hang in there, okay?"

She felt herself being seated upright against a hard surface—probably the wall. As the old man went to bring over the doctor, another woman came over. She knelt by her to ask, "young miss, did you really beat all those Arlong pirates by yourself?"

Perona blinked. Who were these people? And just now, that had been Luffy that headed into the park, wasn't it?

The pain in her back was sharper now, but ironically, it also served to keep her conscious. Her thoughts were starting to come together again.

Turning her head slowly, she looked past the doorway which had been blasted away into pieces. There, she saw none other than Luffy and his two companions—the idiot cook and even more idiot bushido—exchanging some words with Arlong and his remaining crew. She watched them for a second, wondering what was being said, when without warning, Luffy punched Arlong straight in the face.

The impact sent Arlong crashing into the other wall.

". . . !"

Oh, my. That might hurt a bit.

Perona couldn't help but scowl as she watched the three guys face off with the Arlong pirates' top fighters. There seemed to be some unspoken rule about which one each of them took on, and when an octopus man rose out of the waters to confront Zoro, Perona found that all the Straw Hats, even the cowardly Usopp, had their battles laid out for them, clear as day.

"And just thanks to _who_ do you think it worked out like that . . ." Perona grumbled. It had been _her_ decision to confront the fishmen, and it irked her that she hadn't been able to finish the job. How pathetic, sitting here with the rest of the onlookers as a boy and his pirate crew took on the ones she hadn't been able to beat.

At that moment, Usopp and the fishman named Chew rushed past the villagers in a mad chase, with Usopp screaming bloody hell at the top of his lungs. Perona would have laughed at this pathetic display, but decided not to, as she heard the boy luring Chew away from the villagers by goading him on.

Besides, the smug look Chew sent her way as he passed—along with a meaningful look at her wrist—plunged her mood into the depths of gloom. The handcuff hadn't bothered her in the least before. But with others fighting the fight and a bunch of strange people doing their best to give her medical treatment, her pride took a serious blow.

Even if Usopp's legs shook like jelly, he yelled, "Come and get me, fish-face! I, the great Usopp-sama, will take you on!" before dashing away from the furious 'fish-face.'

So the boy _did _have some backbone, after all. Right now, even Usopp was being of more help than she was.

What was she doing, just sitting here? Injured after only taking out the small fry. Even when the village doctor came over to have a look at her, Perona didn't look up. She felt her heart sinking lower with each new crash or boom heard from within Arlong Park. That was the sound of a fight that she had failed to win.

"I'm perfectly fine," she sniffed at the doctor. "If you want to look at a patient, take a look at that green-haired idiot over there swinging around those swords. If you're a doctor, can't you tell which one of us needs more treatment?"

The doctor followed the direction of her pointed finger to Roronoa Zoro, who had just collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. Hachi, as the octopus man was called, charged the fallen man, swords swinging wildly. Only moments before 6 swords descended onto Zoro's unprotected back, the bushido slashed his way upwards, staggering away to leave a trail of dark blood behind. Even if Hachi had been cut, Zoro looked worse for wear.

Of course he did. He was an idiot.

As Perona watched coolly, the doctor's face blanched. "Th-that amount of blood loss—he should be dead, or at least unconscious by now! Why is that man battling a fishman in such a condition?"

"Because he is a hopeless muscle-head, with muscle for brains," Perona answered. "So you shouldn't bother treating him—he won't listen to you, anyways."

Maybe she was just a tad resentful that the bushido hadn't waited for her back at the Baratie. It wasn't everyday that she offered to give someone medical treatment, you know. Perona huffed.

See if she ever helped him now.

"Hey, you," she called out. "Bounty Hunter number 2."

Yosaku and Johnny turned to her, then blinked. "Who're you calling bounty hunter number 2!?"

"Yes, you. Go fetch me my parasol. It's over there on the ground."

At her commanding tone, Yosaku's eyes blazed. "Why should we listen to you . . . !"

"Just do it," she snapped. "It's your fault that I got locked in there, weaponless in the first place. If I had my way, I'd make you guys buy me enough bagels to last me the rest of my life as atonement. Instead, I'll be merciful. Now give me my parasol before I release my Hollows on you."

With the seastone cuffs on, she couldn't fight properly without her parasol in hand.

The pair yelled at her in indignation. "It your own fault the doors locked!"

"Take it easy, both of you," the woman from before intervened. "You shouldn't yell at a girl like that, especially when she's been beaten up like this. I'll go get her parasol, alright?"

Just then, Zoro's voice rang out to them. "Johnny, Yosaku! Let me borrow your swords."

"Of course, Zoro-aniki!"

Perona narrowed her eyes at their enthusiastic reply. "So, you'll only listen to that idiot's commands, hm? I should have known . . . they say birds of a feather flock together, after all."

The pair sputtered in indignation at this. "Are you calling Zoro-aniki an idiot, woman?!"

Ignoring their red expressions, Perona slowly got up to take a look at what was going on. Sanji and the Kuroobi fishman were exchanging blow for blow, while Zoro seemed about ready to wrap things up on his end. Beyond them, chunks of granite and roof shingles blasted this way and that as Luffy engaged Arlong in a fearsome fight.

So far, they seemed evenly matched, but . . .

"Shark on darts!"

"Whoa!"

Luffy bounced into the air, narrowly dodging Arlong's pointed nose as the huge fishman rocketed through the air. There was a splash. The Straw Hat boy landed on the rooftop of the first floor, looking down at the waters where Arlong had dived below.

Arlong, that guy probably still had some tricks up his sleeve.

'Just like he hit me without warning,' she frowned. 'How dishonorable.'

The man called Gen-san had come back to watch the fights. He turned breathless at the sight. "To think that a human could fight evenly with Arlong . . . ! Those people with him are amazing, too, but that boy Luffy, he's something else!"

Before Gen-san even finished his sentence, Johnny shouted out, "Here, Zoro-aniki!" and a pair of swords went spinning through the air. Zoro, who stood motionless in the onslaught of Hachi's swords, waited until the last second before catching the blades deftly in his hands and executing a three-sword style attack. The movement ended too quickly for the ordinary eye, but Perona watched it, and had to admit it despite herself.

"Well, he seems to have a bit of skill," she conceded as all six of Hachi's swords shattered into pieces. Moments later, the villagers gasped as they saw Hachi fall over into his own pool of blood. They began cheering wildly—one of the top executives of the Arlong Pirates lay unconscious and defeated on the ground.

"Um, miss, your parasol," the woman said as she ran up to Perona with the red parasol in hand. Without a word, Perona snatched it out of her hands and twirled it expertly a few times. She nodded. Yes, she could still use it.

With deliberately slow steps, Perona walked over to Zoro, who stood panting heavily over Hachi's body. He looked on the verge of collapsing—the only thing keeping him upright was his willpower. His willpower of idiotic proportions.

Perona put on her best commanding expression, making sure to tilt her head back to show her disdain.

"Hey, you. Get over here and get your wounds treated before we have an extra body to add to the Arlong Park graveyard later on," Perona said. Zoro barely glanced at her.

This made Perona frown. "Hey, didn't you hear me? I said—"

"Shut up . . ." the man muttered back, "Get away from here before the octopus gets back up."

". . . Hmph."

As if. This man could hardly stand anymore, let alone continue battle.

She could see Hachi beginning to stir.

Twirling her parasol one final time, she straightened it vertically and slammed it straight down onto the octopus lying by her feet. The metal point of her umbrella rammed into Hachi's back with a solid _crack._ The octopus man groaned, then went still. He did not attempt to rise again.

"Now he won't be getting up. As for you, I'll make you eat dirt and tears for the next 10 years if you don't follow me, right now."

Zoro still didn't answer. Perona was getting frustrated—to the left, she could hear Sanji and Kuroobi shouting insults to each other, with the cook threatening to make sushi out of the fishman.

Beyond them, Luffy had somehow managed to counter Arlong's vicious dart attack with some kind of "gomu gomu no net." The villagers gave a cheer as Luffy sent the other pirate captain crashing into the ground once more.

"Luffy . . . !" a familiar voice called out from the gate.

Perona looked back, surprised to find Nami standing among the onlookers. A bandage had been wrapped around her shoulder. When had she gotten here? The orange-haired girl was staring wide-eyed as Sanji took down Kuroobi with a final finishing kick.

"Nami-san! How did you like my kick of love that took down this piece of sushi just for you?" Sanji called out, waving joyfully at his new audience. Behind him, the fallen fishman gave a low growl.

Perona just sighed. At least the blonde didn't look hurt. She whipped her head back around to give another glare at the stubborn swordsman, who simply looked at her with a dazed expression.

"The blank look on your face tells me it is perfectly alright for me to drag you over there," Perona analyzed. "Therefore."

She grabbed the man's left arm and all but pulled him off his feet as she made her way towards the murmuring audience. The doctor was giving his incoming patient an overlook as Perona dragged him closer.

"H-hey!" protested the swordsman, stumbling in Perona's grip. "Let go of me, woman!"

He swung his arm wildly, accidentally hitting Perona in the head. The ghost-girl, who was still feeling the effects of the seastone, lost her balance and fell back onto the floor.

"Urgh . . ." Perona felt herself getting light-headed from the impact. Perhaps the pain from her injuries hadn't quite gone away yet. She felt her irritation doubling. Tripling. Quadrupling.

Whatever came after 4 times as much, that was how irritated she felt right now.

She had just taken a big chunk out of her ego in order to help a green-haired idiot get treatment.

The said idiot obviously doesn't appreciate it.

In such situations, the choice was obvious.

Righting herself with the support of her parasol turned crutch, Perona shot Zoro a freezing glare. It was the rare expression she usually reserved for customers who tried to bargain with her.

Zoro, for his part, looked like he really wanted to apologize, as he met her glare with his own eyes shifting back and forth in panic.

"H-hey, look here," Zoro attempted, "I didn't mean to . . . I mean, I can still fight—"

"Hmph," Perona bent down slightly to pick up Kumashi, ignoring Zoro. The stuffed bear happened to be laying right where Zoro had pushed her down. "So that means you'll simply bleed to death. Good riddance for this earth."

Zoro opened his mouth to reply, but Peron didn't give him the chance. Without warning, she swung her parasol at Zoro's head, connecting metal with skull in a solid blow. The poor bushido crumbled to the ground, unconscious, without even realizing what had hit him.

"Zoro-aniki—!" cried out Johnny and Yosaku. Along with the rest of the crowd, they rushed over to check if the man was dead, pushing Perona roughly away from the prone figure as they did so.

"You little witch! How dare you try to kill Zoro-aniki!" Johnny yelled as he crouched over Zoro's still body.

Yosaku gritted out, "If anything bad happens to Zoro-aniki, you'll be the one to pay!"

Nami stood at the edge of the crowd, looking at Perona with a strange expression.

"I seem to recall that he hit me first," Perona simply said, "It's a matter of eye for an eye. Plus, I didn't think he'd go down in one blow. Looks like the world's strongest swordsman has a long way to go."

"You . . . !" rage seemed to block out Johnny's next words. Perona didn't even bother to glance at him. Looking around, she spotted the doctor near the back of the crowd and went over to him, grasping his shoulder firmly and shoving him towards the unconscious swordsman.

"There. Your first patient for the day."

As the doctor stumbled ungracefully, she turned around and walked out of the crowd, who made a path for her as she exited the park. Many of them gave her wary looks—she'd just knocked out the hero who defeated Hachi. And she didn't even look sorry for it. Some wondered whether or not she really was on the Straw Hat's side.

"Perona . . ." Nami's hesitant voice stopped her for a moment.

Perona tilted her head in Nami's direction, "What?"

"You . . . Zoro . . ." Nami looked perplexed.

The pink-haired girl hugged Kumashi tighter as she told her, "What can I say. That bushido, he's an idiot, you know?"

And with that, Perona turned and walked out of the park, heading in the direction Usopp had disappeared. Nami watched the other girl go, her mind going over the small possibility that perhaps, just maybe, Perona had knocked Zoro out on purpose, to get him seen by the doctor sooner.

Knowing Zoro, it would have taken who knew how much longer to get the bushido complacent enough for a doctor to work on him.

An unconscious Zoro was as cooperative as he would get.

But as Nami watched Johnny and Yosaku swear to hunt down the woman who did this to Zoro-aniki, she thought, maybe not.

.

.

.

.

"Eh? Perona!" Usopp's face lit up when he saw her walking up the road. "You won't believe what I just did. Using only a slingshot, a rubber band, some alcohol, and my very own Usopp's hammer, I defeated the—"

"Yes, yes," Perona cut him off, her forehead creasing as his voice bounced around inside her brain. The headache was getting worse. And the seastone cuffs weren't helping at all. If it hadn't been for these, she wouldn't have to suffer the protests in her joints every time she took a step—she'd have taken to the air long ago. "Why don't you run back to your crew and check to see whether they've lost?"

This new idea seemed to strike Usopp as brilliant. "Of course! What can they do without me, the great Captain Usopp-sama, there to guide their every move! I'll tell you about my heroic victory after we've won, Perona!"

He dashed off, leaving a cloud of dust behind to swirl around her stockings. That insensitive . . . ! Now there was dust on her shoes.

"I'll have him do my laundry later . . . horohorohorohoro . . ." she laughed softly, before heading in the direction Usopp had come from. Most likely, judging from Usopp's dirty appearance, some sort of fight had taken place.

"He might have just run away," Perona mused. "But, there is a very small, unlikely chance that they actually fought, and he actually won. Yes . . . because if he'd lost, he'd be dead, I suppose."

Ah, there it was. Chew the fishman looked like he had been crudely beaten over the head. Lumps protruded in all sorts of angles from his skull, and he was half-submerged in a pond as he lay unconscious and soaking wet. Burn marks blackened his skin.

Perona allowed herself a triumphant smile. "How convenient for me. Oy, you. Wake up."

She strode over and began kicking the prone body with her foot, none too gently. When that didn't work, she didn't hesitate to start stomping on his face, not relenting until the fishman gave a twitch.

She stopped and peered at his face closely. "Hey, are you awake?"

Then without warning, Chew shot up into a seated position, nearly knocking over Perona who had been hovering almost directly overhead. The girl gave an indignant yell. As he looked around, Chew seemed to notice that his most recent opponent (and victor) was nowhere in sight, instead replaced by that creepy ghost-girl with her even creepier doll.

"Eh? What? I . . ." Chew touched his face gingerly, wincing at the injuries. What had happened? He remembered feeling pretty triumphant after cornering the boy, but then the cowardly human had pulled some tricks and . . .

_Whack!_

Suddenly, a brand new lump formed on the back of his head. Chew let out a yelp of surprise, and looked up at the girl who had whopped him on his head with her parasol.

Perona scowled. "I didn't wake you up just so you can sit there mumbling! Hurry up and tell me where the key to these atrocious things are."

She held up her arm to show him the handcuffs, which hung like dead weight from her limb. Chew stared at the handcuffs for a bit, then suddenly broke out into laughter.

"So, kukuku, you've still got this thing on you, human girl? Too bad for you, because there's no way I'll be telling you where the keys are. With those things on, you're no match for me . . ."

_Whack! Bam!_

". . . you're useless without those creepy ghosts of yours . . ."

_Bop! Smash! Crack!_

". . . the key's in Arlong's room. Top floor, in his desk drawer."

_Slap! Splash!_

Chew slumped over into the water, once again unconscious and sporting quite a few new bruises. Perona dusted her hands off disdainfully as she reprimanded the fishman, "Weaklings like you don't have any right to laugh at me."

Her business done, Perona strode away from the brutal scene, already erasing Chew from her mind in favor of planning her next move. She had come all the way here in the hopes of finding Chew and learning where the handcuff key was.

Done.

Next, she'd have to go back to the building (the ugly building) and somehow sneak into the top floor without anyone noticing.

"That might be a little hard, especially since I can't fly right now," Perona put a finger to her chin, pondering the quandary set before her.

There was no way she would let anybody see her looking for those keys. That just added another crack in her ego.

'I'm not letting them find out about these handcuffs,' she told herself resolutely. 'That would make it seem like . . . I really _am _useless without my devil's fruit powers.'

She refused to let anyone think that of her.

So, the plan would require stealth. Secrecy. Being discreet.

"I'll sneak in and sneak out before anyone even notices . . ." her voice trailed off as a deafening sound met her ears. It caused another throb in her temples, but she hardly felt it. A flock of birds rose up in the distance, along with a great, big cloud of dust.

That sound . . . it was like a very huge, giant, _something _had suddenly crashed down onto itself, crumbling into a million tiny pieces.

Suddenly, Perona was running, her hair-ties coming loose to let her pink curls blow freely in the wind as she rushed on towards Arlong Park. Even though she had come near enough to hear people celebrating, she couldn't see it.

That ugly building.

She should be seeing it towering in the sky by now, and yet . . .

"This . . ." step by step, Perona's pace slowed, until at last she stopped on the road to take in the scene before her.

"Nami!" Luffy's voice echoed in the stillness. "You are my nakama!"

". . . yes."

The villagers, happy. Nami, laughing and crying. Luffy, grinning like an idiot. Sanji, smiling and smoking. Arlong Park . . . gone.

That pile of rubble that Luffy was standing on . . . was that Arlong Park?

Good riddance, that tower was a shame to architects worldwide.

"Wait, no," Perona shook her head, "even if it's true, it . . . couldn't they have waited another few minutes before knocking the entire thing down!?"

The keys to her handcuffs! They lay buried somewhere in _that!?_

How in the world was she supposed to find a tiny key in that mess? And without her Hollows, too!

Perona collapsed onto her knees, sinking into depression as she wondered what she was supposed to do now.

Just then, a platoon of marine soldiers and their commander marched up to the scene, demanding that all the money on the scene be handed into their possession. The leader's voice sounded quite nasally. It grated on Perona's nerves even with a good 50 feet between the source of the voice and where she sat on the ground.

"Hehehe, and hand over those pirates, too," the marine commander continued. "As a marine officer, I'll be arresting them and taking them over to HQ."

"They can't do this . . . !" the villagers murmured. "These pirates saved us, and now they want to arrest them?"

"And what exactly have the marines been doing up until now about Arlong and _his _crew?!"

"Shhh! They'll hear you!"

The swell of barely contained anger rose among the villagers, but the marine just laughed. "Hurry and fork over the money and pirates, before I—!"

"Shut up!"

_Whoosh!_

A red Devil brand parasol came sailing through the air, smacking the smirking marine officer on the side of his head. The force of the blow sent him flying back into the arms of his subordinates, who crumbled back in panic.

"Commander Nezu! Are you alright!?"

"Who dares to attack a naval officer! Show yourself!"

"Thi—this . . ." Nezu stood up shakily, his face red with anger. "Who dares . . . !"

"I said to shut off that mouth of yours!" Perona's foot slammed his mouth as she gave him a flying kick. This time, blood spurted from his nose as he collapsed, his eyes spinning. His marine platoon made to draw their weapons on the girl, but she merely gave them a stinging glare. "His voice is giving me a headache! Take him away from here before my sensitive ears take damage!"

"Why you . . . !" They pulled out their pistols and aimed them at Perona. She didn't even blink, not even when Sanji and Zoro jumped in and disarmed every single one of them with some well-placed kicks and a sword slash.

As pieces of cleanly severed pistol fell onto the ground, Perona heard the doctor's voice in the background, "Wait, young man! You aren't supposed to move yet!"

Ignoring him, Zoro pointed his swords at the marines threateningly. "Everyone's in a damn party mood right now . . . don't go ruining the fun, you hear?"

Perona noticed that between the loosened bandages around his chest, a new row of stitches ran down the length of his injury.

Sanji re-lit his cigarette, also glaring at the marines. "If you ever try to hurt Perona-chan again, I'll serve you a full course kick, you crap-fools!"

The marines cried out in fear as they looked down at their useless weapons. The commander just whimpered uselessly, cowering behind one of his taller soldiers.

'He's even worse than Fullbody,' Perona observed with utter disdain. 'The marines are filled with incompetents.'

Out loud, she addressed Zoro. "I thought I knocked you out for the day."

"A parasol isn't enough to keep me down."

"Sure was enough to have you eating dirt," she retorted. "Do I need to hit you again for you to stop butting into everybody's business?"

Zoro sheathed his swords and turned to face her. He looked frustrated, somehow. "Look, if you have something to say, say it clearly. How am I supposed to know what you want from me if you keep saying things in riddles?"

Perona paused, and gave Zoro a long look.

Beside them, Sanji had started yelling at Zoro to stop being so rude to his Perona-chan.

But when Perona made to reply to Zoro's question, commander Nezu screeched at them, "I'll have you all reported to HQ! You'll have bounties on your heads! Especially you, Straw Hat Luffy! You'll be wanted by marines all over the world!"

Nobody bothered to say anything to this, but Nami came over and whacked the marine officer over the head with her staff. For the third time that day, the officer fell, this time not even bothering to protest as Nami crouched down beside him. The expression on her face did not bode well for him.

He seemed to notice this as well, and began shivering in fear.

Really, Perona would never have guessed Nami had it in her.

"Listen up, rat-face," Nami stated. "You and your cronies will help clean up the remains of Arlong Park. After that, you will help repair the village. And one more thing."

Tears ran down the man's face as Nami grabbed his mustache and tugged, hard. He nodded, whining in pain.

The girl pulled him closer and shouted, "Give me back my money!"

What, the man stole her money, too? How despicable, indeed.

Behind Nami stood a horde of angry villagers as well as the straw hat pirate captain who had just taken down the powerful Arlong—even Nezu noticed it was time to retreat. He shakily ordered his men to bring over 100 million berry, then made his escape as fast as his legs could carry him.

But not before calling back one last time, "Just you wait, Straw Hats! I'll have you behind bars!"

Perona gave an unlady-like snort. It wasn't the first time she'd heard such a third-rate line, but the first time it had fit the speaker so well.

Then she remembered that she had been about to answer Zoro's question. Lifting her eyes, she saw that he was still looking at her, waiting for her to speak.

Fine, then. He wanted a straight answer?

She lifted her unchained hand and pointed it at the village doctor. "Do everything he says for the next three weeks."

Her tone brooked no nonsense or questions, but demanded obedience. She may not be as scary as Nami, but she could definitely be more commanding. Zoro followed the direction of her finger, then shifted his eyes back to regard her critically.

". . . Fine," he sighed at long last, scratching at his head. "I need a nap, anyways."

After that, everything was a blur. The villagers ran back to their village to spread the good news, sweeping the Straw Hats away with them. Nami looked as joyful as the best of them, whooping and laughing and running with tears in her eyes. Usopp ran at the very front, yelling out 'your welcome!' to anyone who shouted their thanks to the crew. Sanji twirled around the happy girl, claiming that her happiness was his happiness, while Luffy followed everyone else asking if there was going to be food later on, dragging Zoro along behind him as he went.

Perona waited patiently as the last of the stragglers disappeared over the hill. One drunk man in a messy suit took a particularly long time to leave, and she tapped her foot impatiently until his head finally vanished from sight.

She gave a sigh, looking over the pile of rubble. It looked more like a mountain up close, looming over her head mockingly. Her injuries had receded into a dull but constant throbbing. A better option would have been to get some medical treatment from the doctor, wait until the next day, and _then _begin her search.

But her pride told her she needed to find the key as soon as possible, before anybody began questioning the suspicious handcuff hanging off her wrist.

Besides, the handcuff had a natural sea-green color. She shuddered at the effect in had when combined with her red stockings and pink shirt.

"Absolutely atrocious," she mumbled as she began to pick her way over the larger pieces of cement. "The sooner it's off, the sooner I'm rid of this horridly mismatched combination."

Her goal was the very center of the pile—she figured that if the building crumbled straight down, the top floor would have landed somewhere on top. The climb was slow without her horo horo powers to assist her, and the sun had begun to throw long shadows on the ground by the time she reached her destination.

Panting slightly, she straightened and glanced around.

"How exactly did this thing fall?" It would have taken a lot of strength to knock down something this big. "And where's that stupid Arlong's desk?"

Her back, her head, her stomach . . . it was all aching. She wanted a bed. She wanted a bath. She wanted nothing more than to curl up with a pile of cute stuffed animals and sleep the night away . . .

"Sorry, Kumashi. Just wait here, okay?" she told her bear as she carefully sat it atop a smooth piece of granite. "I'll have you back to normal in no time. I'll find the key, you'll see!"

Placing her parasol in the teddy bear's lap, Perona gave her best friend one last look, before plunging into the debris. Carefully, she sifted through crumbled rock and rubble, eyes darting back and forth in search of anything that resembled furniture or wood. She came across torn sofas, shelves that had been knocked askew, shattered pottery and weapons, tattered bits of paper, and a desk that had lost all its drawers.

"The drawers . . ." Perona looked down at the desk in disappointment. Maybe the drawers had fallen through the cracks beneath the skeleton of a desk. Maybe the key had fallen even further down.

With a sigh, she braced herself against the desk and pushed. After a good deal of struggling, she got it to drop into a nearby crevice, clearing a space for her to dig through the rocks beneath.

The sun had nearly set—this was going to be a long night.

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.

—Nighttime, Cocoyashi Village—

The party for the villagers was now in full swing. A huge bonfire lit the center of the circle, and people of all ages danced around it, laughing and smiling and singing until they ran out of breath. And even when their sides ached and their breath came out short, they wouldn't stop laughing for all they were worth.

"It's been so long since we've had a reason to laugh," Genzo observed through a huge grin of his own. Next to him, Nojiko giggled, feeling the effects of some strong draughts of ale.

"We'll probably be partying for days, Gen-san. And to think it's all thanks to some pirates that came looking for Nami."

Genzo chuckled, and they both looked over to where the Straw Hat crew sat around a table piled high with food. Luffy busily stuffed his mouth with everything he could get his hands on, while Sanji was having a lively conversation with the local restaurant owner who had prepared a particularly scrumptious chicken dish. Usopp, between mouthfuls of food, ran his tongue nonstop about his latest heroics to anybody who would listen. Unfortunately for the sniper, his lone audience—Luffy—had his focus more on food rather than story-telling at the moment. Beside them, leaning against a tree, sat the green-haired swordsman, surrounded by a hefty amount of sake bottles. A fresh swab of bandages had been wrapped tightly around his chest.

"Didn't the doctor tell him to take it easy on the alcohol?" Nojiko wondered.

"Apparently to him, drinking sake is equivalent to resting," came the reply. Nojiko snorted incredulously.

"Hey, where's that girl?" Nojiko asked suddenly. "The one with the parasol. Shouldn't she be with her crew?"

"She isn't in the crew."

Both Genzo and Nojiko turned around at the familiar voice. Nami strode up to them, a mug of ale in hand. Her eyes seemed to rest on Luffy and the others fondly, then turned back to Nojiko. "Perona was never part of the Straw Hat crew. In fact, when I first saw her here, I had no idea why she'd even come."

"But if she isn't a part of that crew, why did she help defeat Arlong?" Nojiko asked, puzzled.

Nami reflected her sister's look, clearly perplexed. "What do you mean? She beat up Zoro after he could barely stand from battle—I wouldn't call that help."

"But you saw her taking out commander Nezu before anybody else."

Nami shrugged. "Maybe his voice really _did _annoy her."

The uncertainty in her voice made Genzo frown. "I don't know of anyone who would assault a marine officer for such a reason. Besides, you probably don't know since you weren't there, Nami, but that girl Perona was the one who dealt with most of Arlong's crew before we arrived."

"Huh?" Nami looked up, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"He means exactly that, Nami," Nojiko explained. "When we got to the park, the doors were locked shut, and those two bounty hunters told us that Perona had locked them outside. Once Luffy and the others arrived and broke down the door . . ."

Nojiko looked at Genzo, who met her eyes and nodded solemnly. "Honestly, it was a sight I won't soon forget. All those fishmen who had oppressed us for so long, lying unconscious on the floor . . . I'm not sure what sort of tricks that girl used. It doesn't seem like she would have the ability to take on all those fishmen by herself."

"She gave a pretty good kick to those marines," Nojiko pointed out, but Genzo just shook his head.

"I may not be the strongest man around, but I was once a soldier, too. That girl, Perona was her name? I'll admit she is flexible, and pretty fast, too, but her hits lack power. I doubt her blows would have damaged the thick-skinned fishmen."

Nami seemed to consider something for a moment. "I think . . . I may have an idea."

"Hm?"

Nami was recalling the strange ghosts Perona had conjured. Not only had the girl been able to fly, but also move around a recliner at the simple wave of her hand. With those kinds of fantastic psychic powers, it might be possible for Perona to take on a horde of fishmen.

Yes, it was definitely possible.

When Nami explained her hypothesis, her sister and mentor couldn't find the right words to say.

"Flying, you say?"

"And moving around objects?"

Nami nodded, knowing that she sounded quite ridiculous. "Yeah, I saw her summoning some ghost-looking things."

All she got were a pair of skeptical looks. She blew her hair in frustration.

"Here, Usopp was there, too. We'll ask him."

The girl led them over to where Luffy and his crew sat feasting. At Nami's approach, Sanji stopped all motions and leapt up to make room for the girl and her sister, hearts already beginning to form in his eyes.

"Nami-san! Nojiko-san! Please, come have a seat and join us for dinner!" he crooned, dusting off the grass on either side of him. At this, both the sisters chuckled. Even Genzo cracked a smile, but quickly wiped it off as he pinned the young man with a glare.

"I'm thankful to you and your friends, but these two are off-limits, you got that?" he warned.

Nami just rolled her eyes. "Please, Gen-san. Don't go being overprotective again."

The doting Gen-san protested loudly, but the girls simply ignored him, and he lapsed into a discouraged silence.

Taking a seat in Sanji's offered spot, Nami turned to address the rambling sniper. "Usopp, would you mind telling Nojiko and Gen-san about those ghosts we saw Perona pull out? They wouldn't believe me when I told them."

At this, Usopp looked up eagerly. "Oh, so they want to hear how I managed to exorcise all those ghosts! Never fear, my dear villagers, for this great Usopp-san has managed to drive the evil spirits out of the island once and for all . . ."

"Who wants to hear about your stories!" Nami shouted angrily, making the boy coil back in fear. Next to him, Luffy laughed at his reaction, somehow still managing to stuff a haunch of meat into his bulging cheeks. Nami just sighed. "Never mind, it should have occurred to me that asking you wasn't such a good idea . . ."

"But Usopp," Luffy spoke up, still looking amused. "Those aren't evil spirits. They're Perona's Hollows!"

"Eh!?" Everyone turned to Luffy with wide eyes.

"You know about it?" Nami demanded.

Luffy grinned widely. "Sure do! The ghosts were so cool, so I asked her to become our nakama!"

"Huh!?" Even Zoro sat up at this. "You decided this all by yourself?"

"Well, Sanji agreed, too," Luffy pointed accusingly at Sanji, who simply fell back into love-mode at the mention of the ghost-girl.

"To think I can travel the seas with both the beautiful Nami-swan and the lovely Perona-chan! It would be a dream come true!"

Behind him, Zoro snorted quietly. If the recruit happened to be female, of course that love-cook wouldn't object.

Unfortunately, Sanji's ears picked up Zoro's derisive snort, and whipped his head back fiercely. "What was that for?"

"For you. For being an idiot love-cook," came the cool reply.

"Why, you! You've got no right to say something like that, crap-marimo!"

"What was that!?"

Now both of them had stood up, shouting at each other angrily. At any moment now, they seemed ready to pounce on each other and have a go. It took Nami's irritated yell to stop the brewing fight, though they still grumbled to each other with glowers on their faces.

"Enough! Stop that, you two! Luffy, can you explain more about those Hollows Perona has?"

"Mmmmmmm . . ." Luffy tilted his head, apparently thinking hard. His jaw never stopped munching, though. "They're really cool ghosts! They can go through walls, even people! Shishishi, it's kind of funny when they go through people."

This explanation, of course, did not help at all. Seeing Nami's frustration, Sanji decided to come to her rescue.

"To be more exact, Nami-san," he began, lighting up another cigarette, "Perona-chan told us the ghosts are a result of a Devil's fruit—the same type of fruit that Luffy's eaten."

Nojiko muttered, "Devil's fruit . . . ?"

Both she and Genzo tried to recall what they knew of it, but all they could think of was that Luffy's stretchy body was a Devil's fruit power, and that was about it. They leaned in closer as Sanji decided to elaborate.

"Nojiko-san and Genzo might not know much about Devil's fruits. They're considered myths, after all. Actually, I don't know too much of them myself, since Luffy here was the first Devil's fruit user I met. Perona-chan was the second. But as far as I can tell, they can give the user fantastic powers—like Luffy's body being made of rubber. Perona-chan called her fruit the Horo Horo no mi—it allows her to create and control those Hollows."

"Yeah, shishishi! And they can bum out some people really badly!" Luffy added.

The others turned to Sanji for an explanation of Luffy's words, and the cook, with the eyes of two beautiful females trained on him, happily complied.

"I heard Perona-chan call them Negative Hollows. It seems that if someone touches one of those Hollows, they become utterly depressed."

Nojiko raised an eyebrow. "Hm? Makes people depressed? That sounds pretty harmless to me."

Sanji shook his head, recalling the way the Krieg pirates had been incapacitated in the matter of moments under the barrage of Negative Hollows unleashed upon them. "It may be a temporary effect, but I for one wouldn't want to be put through one of those."

"Wait, wait," Nami held up a hand, putting a stop to the conversation. "Then what about the ghosts, I mean, Hollows or whatever you call them, that can move around objects? Those are also part of her Devil's fruit powers?"

This time, Sanji looked confused. "Move around objects? Without touching them? Perona-chan's never done something like that."

"Huh?" Nami looked taken aback, but luckily, Usopp came to her rescue.

"But it's true! I saw a chair floating around in the air, and it obeyed Perona's every command! You guys saw, right? When I found you guys earlier today. The flying chair I was riding on was being controlled by Perona!"

"A flying chair?" Luffy exclaimed excitedly. He had been absent when Usopp had arrived, having wandered over to Nami's house. "Perona can make chairs fly? Cooool!"

"Oh, no," Nami sighed, putting her head in her hands. There he went again, that blockhead. The sparkles in his eyes clearly showed what he was about to say, even before he said it.

"Neh, that girl is really cool! She'll be our next nakama!" declared Luffy, grinning widely.

Perhaps he was already taking a ride on one of those flying chairs in his imagination.

Nami opened her mouth to say something more, but she found herself cut off abruptly as Johnny and Yosaku came running over to their table.

"You can't, Luffy-aniki!" yelled Yosaku.

"He's right!" seconded Johnny. "That girl hurt Zoro-aniki after he was mortally injured. And she didn't even apologize!"

"Look, even now, she's nowhere in sight! That girl clearly doesn't have any good intentions, or any intentions of joining you!"

"And she's very rude. You wouldn't want such a bossy and rude woman on your ship, would you?"

Luffy looked up at them, his expression blank. "Perona hurt Zoro?"

The bounty hunters nodded vigorously. "Yes! She knocked him unconscious, and even had the nerve to shove the doctor at him afterwards. I mean, it was her fault that he was hurt, and then she calls a doctor? What kind of logic is that?"

Blinking, the young captain turned to look at Zoro, who looked back with an irritated glare. Apparently, he didn't appreciate being reminded of his episode of being bested by a woman.

Then suddenly, Luffy burst out laughing. Everyone else, who had been waiting for his reaction, started back in surprise.

"Shishishi, that girl's strong! She could even knock out Zoro with one hit!"

"Hey!" Zoro yelped, his scowl deepening. Luffy paid him no mind as he continued to laugh.

"That girl really is funny. Hey, Zoro," the boy said to the swordsman, "how's your wound?"

The bushido looked like he wanted to say something more, but then saw Luffy's suddenly sober expression and sat back with a defeated sigh. Whatever. "It'll heal, the doctor said. Apparently the stitching went faster because I was unconscious—otherwise, he said it would've been a very painful process."

Everyone fell silent at this. While Luffy went back to his food, Nami's mind wandered over to the thought she'd had back at Arlong Park—why would Perona hit Zoro?

"If she made him lose consciousness so that he could get medical help . . ." suggested Nami cautiously, "then it would make sense why she had the doctor look at him afterwards."

At the notion, Johnny shook his head firmly. "Then why didn't she just explain it to us like that in the first place? The fact that she didn't offer an excuse is more than proof enough."

"Don't say one more bad thing about Perona-chan," growled Sanji, whose expression had darkened as the conversation progressed. "Whatever the reason she acted the way she did, Perona-chan certainly doesn't need to give any excuses to you."

The atmosphere grew tense; Johnny and Yosaku stiffened under Sanji's intense glare. They looked to Luffy or Nami for help, but those two had receded back into their respective tasks: one feasting and the other pondering hard.

Then, in an effort to lighten the mood, Usopp stammered, "b-but, where _is _Perona anyway? I haven't seen her since we came back to the village . . ."

He looked over at Nojiko and Genzo, who both shook their heads.

"We have as much of an idea as you do," Genzo stated. "Perhaps she has left. You did mention that she isn't a part of your pirate crew."

"Ehh, but she can't leave without us," Luffy interrupted. "She doesn't have a boat. That's why she came here with us, because she said she wants a ride to Loguetown. Of course, if she joins our nakama, she won't need to go to Loguetown anymore, shishishi. Right, Zoro?"

The captain turned to look at his first mate, only to find him gone. "Eh? Zoro?"

Everyone else turned to look, too. Sure enough, only a tree and some empty sake bottles greeted their view. The bounty hunter duo ran off into the crowd in a panic, worried that their aniki would worsen his injury . . . again. In contrast, Luffy just shrugged and got up to get himself 5 new plates of food.

It wasn't like Zoro would leave without a word if he didn't have a good reason, anyway.

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A dejected sigh broke the silence hanging over Arlong Park. The former ghost-girl slumped back against a pile of chunky bricks, a pout on her lips as she stared at the excavated site before her.

The sun had long since set; darkness settled in now, making it infinitely harder to see. Her efforts to dig downwards to exploit all the nooks and crannies between the rocks hadn't made much progress. The pieces of rubble and cement just kept getting bigger, the hole none the wider, and a small little handcuff key still lay nowhere in sight. Kumashi sat on a ledge a few feet above her head now, and though she really missed his comforting squeeze, she didn't have the energy to climb all the way up there and bring him down.

She really missed her Hollows. Her Blue Hollows would have gotten these rocks out of the way within minutes.

Or if she'd had some sort of Hollow that could track down and possess specific objects . . .

"There's a little idea," she mused, fingering her curly hair. "A Blue Hollow created to possess a specific object? So that it has to find the object before possessing it. Then it could find anything I ask it to find, and it could fetch it back, too . . ."

Toying with her sudden idea, she found she liked it more and more. For the first time in hours, she allowed herself a little grin as she thought of the possibilities. She could name it the Finding Hollow, or the Searching Hollow, or the Seeking Hollow.

"I wouldn't have to go looking for my lost stockings ever again!" she exclaimed gleefully. "And I wouldn't have to be looking for this stupid key, either!"

. . . Oh, who was she kidding. The idea may be good, but down here, with these accursed seastone cuffs on, it may very well be fantasy. Having a new idea for her Hollows didn't change the fact that she still needed to unlock the cuffs first.

"What key?"

At the sound of another voice, she yelped in surprise, jumping nearly a foot in the air. Snapping her head up, she saw the silhouette of somebody crouching over the hole she had dug, a single sword hanging at his waist.

Now recognizing the voice's owner, Perona was quick to school her face into a scowl. "And just what are you doing here? Can you not understand simple instructions? Listen to the doctor, is what I recall saying."

"I am listening to him," Zoro's voice sounded faintly amused. "He never told me _not _to come back out here. He also said fresh air will probably be good for me."

"The air is _not _fresh here. It smells of seawater and disgusting fishmen and is filled with particles of dust that can enter open wounds, accumulate, and slowly rot the body from the inside out. Now get out of here, unless you'd prefer to be knocked out again."

At this, she definitely heard him smirk. "I'd like to see you try."

She saw his figure hold up an arm, with her parasol held in his hand. "Hey! Get your filthy hands off my parasol!"

"Make me."

Perona bit back her rising irritation—how she desperately wished for a Negative Hollow right now to put him in his place!

"So, what are you doing here anyway?" Zoro continued, ignoring her consternation. "There's a party going on, you know?"

Her expression darkened, and she crossed her arms in a huff, ignoring the jarring pain in her upper back as she did so. "I can see the bonfire's glow all the way out here, and have no desire to join such an uncivilized party, thank you very much. And I could ask the very same question to you. What's a bloody mess of bandages like you doing all the way out here?"

Without warning, Zoro tossed the parasol over his shoulder and leapt into the hole, landing inches away from Perona with a grunt. The girl immediately recoiled away from him, scooting over to her right to put a good 2 feet between her and the intruder.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "How dare you toss my parasol around like a piece of junk! Do you realize how much that cost?"

"Don't know, don't care," Zoro grunted. Now that he was at eye level, Perona could see the fresh new bandages wrapped around his chest.

At least the town doctor had some skills, she thought.

"And anyways, I came out here because I somehow figured you were still back here. Mind telling me what's going on?" he arched an eyebrow at her, shoving his hands into his pockets as he leaned back against the wall of debris on the opposite side of the hole.

Perona just glared at him darkly. He had no business here. She wanted him to leave. Now. "None of your business. Now get out of here and let me finish in peace."

"And what exactly are you trying to finish?" the green-haired man persisted.

"I told you it's none of your business!" she retorted, her voice rising. This idiot just couldn't get it through his thick skull, could he?

At the tone of her voice, Zoro paused and seemed to stare at her a long moment, before giving a defeated sigh. "Fine, just do whatever you want."

"Hmph."

Finally. Trying not to let her relief show on her face, Perona waited for Zoro to climb back out and go back to his party. She waited. And waited.

Finally, seeing that he just stood there, doing nothing, her patience snapped like a twig.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Well what?"

"Hurry up and leave!"

"I never said I was leaving."

Perona couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You said—!"

"I said you can do whatever you want. I'll be doing what _I _want to do," Zoro gave her a smirk. "And since I don't really feel like climbing up with this injury on my chest, I think I'll stay here for a while. Don't mind me."

Now she gaped at him, not trying to hide her disbelief. This crude, insensitive, idiotic, muscle-brained stupid idiot of an idiot of an idiot!

She could not find enough words to describe him at the moment. Struggling, she managed to mutter some incoherent expletives, to which Zoro merely chuckled.

A few long minutes passed in silence. Although Perona's stare remained angry, Zoro didn't even bat an eye, his posture impassive and relaxed. Clearly, the man was serious.

". . ." her headache was back. And she knew she couldn't continue to waste time here—the sooner the key was found, the sooner she could leave.

Swallowing heavily, she shot the man one final glare before resuming her task where she had left off, steeling herself to ignore the swordsman's stare boring into her back.

'He's an extra piece of rock,' she told herself as she dug out a boulder and tossed it to the side. 'A chunk of brick. A blockhead sitting with his kin, nothing more.'

But she couldn't help it—it felt beyond degrading to have somebody else watch her at hard labor. Especially when her clothes had been torn, her hair unkempt and filthy, and no doubt dark circles marred her cheeks. It was every girl's worst nightmare. And for Perona, her incomparable sense of pride and critical eye for fashion made it all the worse.

"Hey," Zoro interrupted her thoughts—an action she resented. It made her notice his presence despite her efforts not to. "Are you looking for something? You said something about a key, right?"

Not bothering to answer, Perona hefted a chunk of brick and dried mortar and set it aside, peering into the crevice that had been hidden under it. She could barely see into it—the moonlight couldn't reach all the way down here. A strangled sigh of frustration tore at her lips. Where was that key?

". . . I'll help."

"I don't need your help," she replied almost immediately.

"I think you do. Why aren't you using those ghosts that Nami and Usopp were talking about? If you really have the power to move stuff around without even touching them, why aren't you using that power now?"

Involuntarily, Perona flinched, glancing quickly at Zoro, who didn't miss her reaction.

"Actually, if I think about it, you didn't use those powers earlier either. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't have been able to take care of Arlong if you had some spirits to do the work for you. Is there a reason you can't use your powers right now?"

She twitched, her eyes narrowing as she picked up another rock with shaking hands. This guy . . . he was supposed to be an idiot. Since when had he gotten so perceptive?

"In any case," along with his voice, she heard a cascade of rock particles tumble down behind her. "I'll start digging over here. Two's better than one, right?"

Looking over her shoulder, Perona saw Zoro picking up boulders and tossing them out of the hole with ease. Even with a wound like that, he could still manage to outdo her in strength.

For a few minutes, she watched him work without a word. Then finally, when Zoro looked up to meet her stare, her scowl faded away, to be replaced with something like a child's frustrated bewilderment.

"Why are you helping me, anyways?"

Zoro threw an especially large hunk of granite out of the hole, before replying, "Call it returning a favor. It's thanks to you I got this wound stitched painlessly, anyways."

And after that, though she stared at him for a minute longer, they no longer spoke to each other as they went back to work. When Perona's pile of excavated rocks got too big, Zoro would stop digging his side (which made considerably faster progress than hers) and come over to help toss the whole thing out. Though Perona would never admit it, his help sped up the work quite a bit.

By dawn, a thick layer of dust covered both of them from head to toe, and Perona's arms shook from exhaustion. At this point, she could barely keep on her feet, but she refused to sit down and rest, simply because Zoro had yet to take a break, either. She wouldn't let him best her.

Even though the morning light started out faint, gradually, the sky overhead grew lighter, and Perona found she could see through cracks and holes with a little more ease. She felt her hope come alive again with the day. Perhaps she'd be able to find it soon . . .

"Hey," called Zoro. "Is this the key you're looking for?"

At the question, Perona whipped around and nearly tackled Zoro as she snatched the object out of his hand. The man gave a "Hey!" as he stumbled back from her weight, but she paid him no mind. She had only eyes for the little, brass key in her palm, the size of her pinky, twinkling innocently in the morning rays.

No doubt, this was it.

Quickly, Perona stuck the key into the handcuff on her wrist, almost laughing with relief as the lock turned with a click. As the chains fell away, she felt the familiar lightness enter her system. Her feet rose off the ground without her even realizing, and before she knew it, she had shot up out of the hole and into the air, laughing and twirling around like she hadn't done in a long time. Had it been only a day since she'd last flown?

It felt like forever and a day, she thought as she called out her Hollows, who gladly joined her in her childish acrobatic play through the air. The morning sun rays felt warm on her skin, and with her familiar powers back, she felt the exhaustion melt away to be replaced by a simply joy. So she laughed, the innocent laughter of a child at play, as she enjoyed the light breeze that flitted through her hair.

To frolick in the air once again . . . that feeling had no equal.

At length, when she'd had her fill, Perona descended back into the hole, where Zoro stood studying the handcuffs she had taken off. "So these somehow prevented you from doing . . . all that?"

He gestured up into the air, and gave a nervous glance at the two Negative Hollows floating on either side of her. It was his first time seeing the Hollows, after all.

"It's made of seastone," Perona explained irritably. "They can block Devil's fruit powers. It'll work on Luffy, too."

"I see . . ." Zoro seemed thoughtful as he threw the cuffs away. "There's still a lot of things out there I don't know about. I would never have thought that a simple rock could take away those freakish powers."

"Yup, you have a long way to go," Perona agreed heartily. "And you'd better keep this whole affair in the dark, you hear? If I hear you've been going around blabbing, I'll stuff you into a life-sized stuffed animal and have you serve me hot cocoa for the rest of your miserable life, got it?"

In reply, Zoro gave her a pathetic look. "You call that a threat?"

She simply crossed her arms and said, "I call it whatever I want. Well then, I'll see you back at the village."

"Huh? Hey, wait, you're just going to leave me here?"

She blinked at him. "Is there a problem?"

"Damn right, there's a problem! I come here and help you find that damn key and after _I _finally find it, you'll fly away just like that?" he yelled, nearly sputtering in indignation.

"It was your decision to help me, not mine. Therefore, I'm not obligated to do anything for you. I hope you get back in time for breakfast! Horohorohorohoro!"

With an imperious laugh, she launched into the air, leaving the furious swordsman struggling for words. He had come all this way and even found the key for her, just because he felt obligated to return a favor done to him, and the girl actually just left him here?

He sighed, rubbing his face with a hand.

"Maybe she really is a witch . . ." he recalled Johnny and Yosaku weeping by his bedside in the clinic earlier, tattling on every bad thing the girl had done that day. "But then again . . ."

His memories drifted back to just moments before, when he had watched her aviation show in fascination. Seeing a human fly, accompanied by transparent spiritual beings, was definitely not a sight he saw every day. And the girl had looked so happy, so _free,_ up there, that without Zoro even acknowledging it, he had been convinced that the girl couldn't be as evil as others perceived. And Luffy seemed to like her. For the most part, Zoro felt he could trust his captain's judgment when it came to character. Not completely, but mostly.

"But still, it makes me doubt myself when she just ups and leaves me here like that," he muttered grumpily. He didn't feel like walking all the way back; maybe he would catch a nap here and wait for the others to find him.

Just as he began looking for a relatively comfortable place to settle on the rocks, he felt the wind stirring around him and looked up to see a big recliner slowly descending towards him. He blinked, staring at the chair as it slowed to a stop in front of him, hovering an inch or two off the ground.

". . . A flying chair?" He seemed to recall seeing Usopp ride on one of these things.

As if on cue, Perona's head popped out over the edge of the hole. In the brightening sunlight, Zoro could tell that she no longer had her usual scowl on her face. "Well, what are you doing? Get on in three seconds or I'll really leave you behind!"

He didn't need a second invitation. Jumping onto the recliner, he settled down comfortably, placing his hands behind his head as he felt the wind rush by his face. The ride itself betrayed almost no movement—with his eyes closed, he would hardly have believed that the recliner was flying if it weren't for the air resistance he felt.

"Unbelievable!" Perona's voice assaulted him. The man cracked an eye open to look over in her direction, noting that the both of them now hovered quite a distance from the ground. The remains of Arlong Park were fast shrinking behind their backs. "You have the nerve to take a nap when I graciously offered you a ride back to the village?"

Zoro yawned. "Then what should I do instead? Want me to scream like a little girl like Usopp was yesterday?"

"Of course not! That's just undignified."

"Then there you go."

". . ."

They lapsed into silence, but it felt more comfortable than before. Zoro's eyes slipped shut, and as he nodded off into sleep, he heard Perona whisper a faint, "Thanks for your help."

He grinned. "You're welcome."

"Go to sleep!" was the irritated reply. But if it wasn't Zoro's imagination, a hint of a smile could be heard in Perona's voice.

* * *

**A/N**: I'm back!

I wonder if anybody notices...haha. I really do appreciate everyone who stops by and reads this elementary story. Thank you, my dear reader, and have a lovely day!


	7. Princess Back in Loguetown

**A/N:** Well, I got some comments on the chemistry(?) between Zoro and Perona from the end of the last chapter, so I thought I'd post this next chapter early and clarify this point.

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who posted reviews on my story. You guys are the ones that keep me going! Thank you so much for your encouragement, interest, and constructive criticism. I'm also happy that nobody's flamed me so far haha.

Anyways.

This fanfic was NOT meant to be written as a romance story. This author is very very very very very bad at writing romance, so there is absolutely no intention to include any sort of "shipping" or whatever into it. It's action/adventure, people.

So that means, no romance.

If a lot of people want the romance in there, I may go for it just for the heck of it, but unless there's someone who is _dying_ for some love action, it's not happening. Sorry haha.

However, I'll continue to put in a lot of Zoro and Perona moments (not romantic! Just platonic. Platonic). This is because I feel that as a fanfic writer, I wanted to carry on some of the original story's plot elements and incorporate them into my own story in my own way. So, to explain, probably everybody who's read the original One Piece manga would agree that **out of all the Straw Hat Pirates, Zoro has the closest relationship with Perona**. I mean, they did spend 2 years on an island together. Perona doesn't interact much with the others, but with Zoro, she spent quite a bit of time with him (albeit reluctantly). I wanted my story to reflect this original relationship.

This also means, in turn, that you can expect Perona's relationships with Usopp, Mihawk, Moria, and some others to be developed more later on. Because the relationship between these characters in the original manga were also more developed than the others.

Does that answer the inquiries?

If any readers feel the need to squeal excitedly at every sweet Perona and Zoro moment, go right on ahead. As a writer, I feel flattered if my readers can get involved in my stories. But nothing will ever hint explicitly at a romantic development.

.

So with that long note, here is the next chapter!

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**Chapter 7: Princess Back in Loguetown**

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—Loguetown, marine base—

"…Captain Smoker," Tashigi whispered, staring up at her superior with a hooded gaze. Due to Perona's influence, her once close-cut hair had grown to shoulder length. It hung from the back of her head, tied into a neat ponytail. Right now, the woman was fingering a familiar ribbon-shaped hairpin in her bangs.

Smoker growled, not pleased. He had just gotten a call from Marine Headquarters, and their orders seemed to disturb Tashigi very much. "Why would a Tennryubito want Perona arrested, captain?"

One of Smoker's cigars died out, but the man made no move to re-light it. "According to the head butler of the Roswald family, the owner of Princess Brands disobeyed a direct order from the lord's daughter, what's-her-name..."

"Charlotte Roswald, I believe."

"Yeah, her. They want Perona in custody, and within the Tennryubito's possession as soon as possible. The order is from Marine HQ, Tashigi. They've probably sent the notification to all marines ranked Captain and above. Even if we ignore the order, the other officers who have been notified will manage to arrest her anyway," Smoker chewed the edge of his cigars into fringes, eyes narrowed in distaste. He did not appreciate it when the world nobles ordered the marines around like dogs. He had pirates to catch, dammit! His time was better spent arresting those scurves of the sea—not chasing after a girl that pissed off the Tennryubito. "You have my permission to sit this one out, Ensign. I don't want you getting sentimental on me while carrying out your orders."

Tashigi gulped, Perona's words echoing in her mind.

"_There are things only a woman can do!"_

"_It's your job to show them that you can!"_

Clutching her sword tighter, Tashigi shook her head firmly. "I'll accompany you, captain. In taking custody of Perona by orders of Marine HQ. Because…that is my job."

The man gave Tashigi a long look, and nodded.

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"You know, Nami. If you'd asked, I could have easily stolen all their wallets without even lifting a finger."

Perona and Nami sat side by side on a pair of foldable chairs, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the cool sea breeze. Gentle waves rocked the Merry Go back and forth. While Nami busied herself sorting through a sizable pile of wallets and purses (filched from her neighbors a few days ago), a little stuffed monkey lay half-made in Perona's lap. The pink-haired girl hummed a little tune to herself, her hands deftly sewing the needle in and out. She was working on her latest stuffed animal. The inspiration refused to let her alone, ever since she had laid eyes on Luffy: a cute little monkey with a straw hat on its head. She would add a red ribbon onto the hat for some Princess Brand flair.

Nami giggled as she counted her cash, "Thanks for your offer, Perona, but it's more fun this way. And my sister and neighbors won't be forgetting about me anytime soon after this, don't you think?"

Recalling the dumbfounded expressions mirrored on each and every one of the villagers' faces, Perona laughed in agreement. "Horohorohorohoro, you left quite a lasting impression on them."

As the girls continued to chat, a flap of wings announced the arrival of a guest. A big bird landed on the rails with a wad of newspaper held in its beak. Seeing her daily delivery, Nami fished out a coin and went to purchase her paper.

"Hey, the price rose again! I'll stop buying if it goes up any higher, you got that, bird?"

Stingy as ever. Even in the short time Perona had known the girl, she already had a good idea of how tight the Straw Hat navigator's drawstring purse could be.

Just before the Merry Go left Cocoyashi, Perona had gotten a taste of Nami's money-love. Really, it bordered on obsession. When Luffy started bugging Perona about joining the Straw Hat pirates again, Nami had this to say: "Perona? On our ship? Sailing with us as part of our crew? That would mean . . . as a _comrade_ and _nakama_ in the same crew, I would have _free_ _access_ to all of your Princess Brand products? Welcome to the crew, Perona!"

"…."

Sufficed to say, Perona had shot her a stinging glare. It didn't have much effect, though, because Nami couldn't see past the berry signs in her eyes.

"Awww…come on, just one, Sanjiiii!"

The sound of Luffy's whine brought Perona's attention back. The rubber boy sat slumped over on the deck, eyeing the orange grove on the upper deck hungrily. A little ways off, Usopp was rolling around the deck, screaming in pain as fire and tears poured out from his eyes. Something about a latest hot sauce invention gone wrong.

Nobody paid him much attention.

Glancing at the orange trees on the rear deck, Perona gave a shrug. In all honesty, the addition of trees onto this barren ship added a touch of natural charm to the whole thing. It pleased Perona's aesthetic taste quite a bit. Unfortunately, though, it caused a lot more trouble than it was worth between sneaky orange thieves (Luffy and Usopp) and the grove's loyal guardian.

Sanji stood with his kicking leg held out dangerously. His eyes flashed, arms held out firmly to block the orange trees behind him from view. "None of you are allowed to touch Nami-san's precious orange groves. I will guard them with my life! Right, Nami-swan?"

"Thank you, Sanji," came Nami's cool reply as she flipped open her newspaper. Behind her, Perona heard Zoro mutter something about 'manipulative women.'

"Aargghh! Agghhhh!" Usopp continued to yell, burning tears streaking his face. Perona gave an irritated sigh, then waved a hand, summoning a Blue Hollow that embodied itself into the water jug sitting on the table.

_Splash!_

"Th-thanks, Perona…" Usopp mumbled, his face, hair, and goggles now soaking wet. "But there might have been a better way to do that, you know? Without getting water all over my shirt."

"Hmph," Perona smirked at Usopp's lame attempt for a better solution. "Your screams grated on my nerves. You sounded like a dying pig. I chose the shortest method to cut you off."

The boy laughed sheepishly, taking her insult in stride. The cool water felt good on his stinging eyes.

A few days with Perona was enough to harden even the most sensitive soul against her sharp tongue. And Luffy had taken quite enthusiastically to Perona—the others had no choice but to get accustomed to her stinging words.

And they found that really, she wasn't all that bad.

Um, well, sometimes she could be downright mean, but more and more, the girl was proving herself otherwise.

And besides, she did them all a valuable service.

Above all else, one thing they truly appreciated was her ability to distract their energetic captain. Ever since Luffy witnessed Zoro snoring away on Perona's flying chair, he had acquired a distinct sparkle in his eye whenever he looked at the pink-haired girl. Or, more specifically, whenever he laid eyes on her Blue Hollows.

Simply put, he began asking for a ride whenever he saw Perona around. Asking, demanding, begging, pleading. Whatever you call it.

It annoyed Perona to no end.

Usually, it went something like this:

"Perona! Can I ride in a flying chair?"

"No."

"Please? Please? Let me ride one, just once. Please!"

"No."

"Neh, Perona, come on. Just one more ride!"

"No."

"Peronnnnaaaaaaaa…"

Well, you get the point.

Most of the time, she either ignored him or booted him out of the way, and threw him an irritated glare. But other times, once in a thousand, once in a million…_very, very rarely, _she would grab Luffy by the collar and all but _throw_ him onto a piece of furniture, sending him off on a wild roller coaster ride.

"It's the fastest way to get him out of my face," she would huff angrily.

The other Straw Hats would simply smile, watching their silly captain whoop with joy as the chair (or bed, or piece of wood, whatever happened to be lying around) performed loop-the-loops through the sky.

On even rarer occasions over the past week, Usopp would join Luffy for a free ride on Perona's Possession Hollows. Though his legs shook like jelly, and he had all his exorcism gear out and ready to go, the coward eventually began whooping right alongside his captain. Sometimes the two idiots would pretend to race each other, forgetting that they didn't actually have any control over their vehicles.

And before the group departed from Cocoyashi village, Johnny and Yosaku had come up to Perona to apologize.

"We're sorry, Perona-aniki. We just got so upset when we saw you hit Zoro-aniki…!"

"We know you did it for his own good. You're right, we understand now. Even the doctor said that knocking him out before he further damaged himself was a good idea, so…"

Of course, Perona never took an apology bare-handed. "Of course I'm right, imbeciles. Now if you really want to show me a bit of your appreciation…" she tossed them both a bundle of clothes. "Wear these. I'm charging you double, and refusal is not an option."

And so, she bade farewell with the East Blue bounty hunters in good spirits, leaving their outfits a noticeably brighter shade of red. Actually, the duo seemed quite happy about their new matching set of shirts and headbands.

Perona gave a satisfied smile at the sound of coins in her heart-shaped purse. Two more fashionably improved customers. She'd long ago given up on her vacation—she couldn't relax properly with all these sinfully unpalatable outfits around, anyway.

After that, the Straw Hats seemed to have a better idea on how Perona operated. Eventually, even Usopp learned not to take Perona's words at face value—after all, whenever Perona insulted Sanji's cooking, the chef would usually find his dishes mysteriously washed and dried on the racks after dinner. Or when the ghost girl kicked a napping Zoro roughly out of her way, the swordsman would find his afternoon training sessions strangely free of interruptions. Not to mention the suspicious Negative Hollow floating just around the corner, ready to scare off obnoxious disturbers (i.e. Luffy and Usopp). Or that one time when she snapped at Nami for coming to breakfast in her pajamas—Nami had found three brand new sets of clothes in her dresser later that morning.

Knowing all this, Usopp gave his wet hair a few pats before going back to his gadgets. The frown on Perona's face relaxed a little; and she turned her attention back to the piece of cloth in her hands. Now, to make the arms.

Luffy came bounding up to her in an eager bounce.

Oh, no.

"Neh, Perona!" he said, his eyes taking on their eager shine. "Can I?"

"No. Go away. Leave me alone," she bit out, concentrating on making the stitches even and pretty.

"Peronaaa, pleeeeeaaaaase."

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaa—"

"No."

"Peronnnnaaaaaaa…"

Perona blew at her bangs in frustration. She hated being interrupted at her work. Her irritated glare came up to meet Luffy's eager gaze. The boy, seeing that he had her attention, grinned and ran off.

He returned shortly, carrying his big red blanket in his arms.

"Here! Let me ride on this one this time! It'll be like a flying carpet, shishishi!"

Glowering at the boy, she gave the blanket a hard stare. Perona muttered something darkly under her breath as she allowed a Blue Hollow to rise out of her body, the indefinable globs of spiritual energy slowing forming into a grinning specter.

"Go drop him in the ocean somewhere," she quipped, before picking up her stitches where she had left off. The Blue Hollow nodded and flew into the bundle in Luffy's arms. Laughing excitedly, the boy captain let go of the blanket. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch in strange fascination, as the glowing blanket hopped into the air by itself and unfolded into a flat square, waiting for its passenger to hop on.

Needing no second invitation, Luffy scrabbled on and shouted delightedly as the object sped off at breakneck speed. He had to hang onto his Straw Hat for fear of losing it in the wind. As the boy began whooping breathlessly, the others returned to their tasks. Usopp spared just enough time to wave back at the hyper boy a few times before turning back to his inventions. The 'flying carpet,' as Luffy aptly named it, had precise instructions from its mistress. It zig-zagged through the blue sky, throwing loops, spirals, twists and turns, tilting dangerously to its side as it zoomed through the masts and riggings above. But Zoro noticed that the heart-stopping dips and turns never actually endangered the rider on board. Luffy screeched in unbridled exhilaration.

"There's a war going on," Nami muttered as she turned a page in her paper, "and gas prices going up. Lots of unrest these days . . ."

"I'm flyiiiiiing!"

The navigator didn't even bat an eye. "…and the rebels are acting up more and more. Wonder how that's all going to end up…"

Just then, as Nami turned the page of her newspaper, something fluttered out of the leaves of the newspaper next to Usopp. It was a piece of paper.

The boy glanced down at it briefly, then did a double-take, adjusting his goggles to stare at the poster on the floor.

"This…!"

"Eh?" Nami leaned forward, and she too gave a gasp of surprise.

Zoro took one look at it and called, "Oi, Luffy! You might want to come look at this!"

Luffy pouted, but Perona would have none of that. At her beckoning, the blanket flew back and dumped the rubber boy next to the poster. He began to protest, but then caught sight of the picture printed on the front of the paper. A nice, big picture. Luffy went quiet.

Then, he yelled out, "What!?"

Even Sanji gave an interested "hn" as they all stared at the wanted poster in their midst.

A brief moment of shocked silence.

Then

"EHHHHHH!?"

"I'm wanted for 30 million berries! Wow!" Luffy grabbed the poster and held it up excitedly, breathless from the shock, or perhaps from his recent tumble in the air. Perona arched an eyebrow, disbelief warring in her eyes.

"You? For 30 million? Which marine officer made the printing error?"

Nami fell back into her chair, shaking her head. "Ugh, to think that you'd get a bounty at a time like this…don't celebrate, you idiots! Don't you realize that people will be coming after our lives now?"

Apparently, no. The thought didn't even enter their heads.

They began talking excitedly to each other about what this meant for Luffy's reputation. Sanji prepared to go into the kitchen and cook a celebratory feast; Zoro, who actually acknowledged Nami's observation with a nod, fingered his katana in eager delight. The prospect of worthy opponents knocking on his doorstep only served to fuel his excitement.

Nami looked around at the boys helplessly. Even Usopp seemed happy—he kept pointing to the corner of Luffy's picture where the back of the sniper's head had been captured. "Hey guys, I'm a famous pirate, too!"

"These morons…" Nami fell into a helpless state, turning to Perona for comfort. "Perona, you agree with me, right? It's a _bad _thing for your face to be printed on a wanted poster, right? It's never good to have bounty hunters and marines after your head, right?"

"Of course," replied Perona, immediately. Her female companion brightened, finally having someone agree with her. For once.

More and more, Nami was starting to like the idea of Perona joining them permanently. Not only could the ghost-girl keep Luffy entertained (i.e. out of everybody else's hair), but she also sported enough common sense to actually converse with Nami on normal terms.

Unlike the rest of the brainless crew.

Amid a crowd of battle-crazy idiots, Perona presented a breath of fresh air for the only female member of the Straw Hat pirates.

"I knew you'd understand, Perona," Nami sighed in relief.

But her blooming smile died, painfully, at Perona's next words. "The marines do a horrible job in designing these posters. Just look at that ugly brown color. If they're going to print profile pictures and spread them all over the world, don't you think they have the obligation to at least make it look attractive? 'Appearance' is the number one requirement in any sales tactic, you know! How dare they insult a perfectly good smile like Luffy's by framing it in such…ugh. No, it's a horrible insult to be printed onto one of these."

Nami fell to her knees, defeated. She had yet to realize that Perona's obsession with fashion ran as deep as Nami's own love for money.

The navigator would have continued to brood, if it weren't for Luffy's excited voice at the helm. "Hey, Nami! I see an island ahead!"

She looked up almost by reflex. "An island?"

"Yeah, over there!"

Everyone crowded over to look; sure enough, a patch of land loomed ahead on the horizon.

"It's Loguetown," Perona stated, the only one having actually been there before.

Consulting her map, Nami gave the affirmative. "We're really close to the Grand Line now. Loguetown is considered a pit stop for anyone in the East Blue headed for the Grand Line—it's also Gold Roger's hometown, where he was executed 20 years ago."

Luffy looked at Nami, eyes wide. "Gold Roger's execution?"

Despite her previous annoyance with him, Nami grinned at the captain's eager look. "Yup."

"It's about time," Perona placed her hands on her hips. "Hurry up and hoist the sails higher. Can't this thing go any faster? I'm worried about my boat—it's been in that harbor unsupervised for more than a week, thanks to that whole mess with those atrocious fishmen. My poor boat…it'll probably need some touch-ups before I can set sail with it."

At this, the others now turned to stare at Perona in surprise. The girl, normally unperturbed, blinked confusedly at their reaction. "What?"

"Well, it's just," Usopp scratched his cheek. "Why would you need your boat?"

This question made Perona frown. "I knew you were brainless before, but this just takes the cake. Of course I need my boat. How do you expect me to travel without it?"

"Weren't you coming with us? I thought Luffy invited you into our crew."

"I never accepted," she huffed, not liking where this was going.

Luffy puffed his cheeks out at her refusal. "But I want you to be my nakama!"

"I don't care what you want," she gave the boy a look askance, "and I've got more important things to do than hang around giving you free rides all day. Do you think it's an easy task managing a world-famous designer brand of clothing? Stores all over the world are requesting my designs every day!"

"But I want you in our crew!" Luffy repeated, the resolution in his face hardening. "So you're joining! You can be our crew's…eh, uh…"

The boy cocked his head, trying to think of a good position for Perona to fulfill. She raised an eyebrow at him, skeptical.

"You'll be our…uhm, well—"

"Resident ghost?" Usopp suggested.

Sanji shook his head. "Being our ship's cute mascot would suit the cute Perona-chan much better."

Zoro snorted, but couldn't come up with anything better and kept his mouth shut.

At length, Nami gave a long-suffering sigh. "Honestly, you guys can't even think for yourselves. Perona is a world-famous tailor, you know? And she even fixed up all your own clothes after they got ruined in the fight. She can be our crew's tailor."

To Luffy, this idea seemed to strike home. He jumped up and pointed at Nami, yelling, "Yeah! A tailor! Perona will be our crew's tailor…and give me magic carpet rides!"

"That's not the point!" his crewmates didn't hesitate to knock him upside the head. Perona watched their antics, more amused than anything as the rubber man cheerfully grinned around at them.

"Well, Perona?"

The ghost-girl looked around. They all stared back at her, expressions eager and inviting.

It grated on her nerves. The fact that she actually considered the proposal for a moment . . .

She shook her head, and crossed her arms defensively as she put on her trademark scowl. "What makes you think I'll want to come with you, exactly? You think I'll just abandon everything I've built for myself and come frolicking in your pirate antics?"

Luffy opened his mouth to reply, but Perona beat him to it. "I said _no_ the first time. Get it through your thick skull. I won't get tied down making clothes for just one group of people—that's the worst kind of insult to a world-class designer."

Nobody said anything this time, as each of them contemplate her words. A long silence ensued. Usopp shifted awkwardly on his feet, glancing from Perona to Luffy and back. The Straw Hat captain himself just looked at Perona, the childish grin gone from his face.

Perona didn't meet his gaze. Turning sharply on her heels, she headed into the cabins to begin packing her things—she would leave as soon as they docked, and never look back.

Associating with pirates…that wouldn't help the Princess Brands at all. She had a reputation to keep up, if she still wanted business in these waters. She shook her head again, as if to affirm with herself that nothing good would come from staying on this ship.

Nothing, at all.

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When the Merry Go finally anchored in Loguetown harbor, Perona left without a word, disappearing into the thick crowd within a blink of an eye. She purposefully veiled her presence with her ghostly powers so that even Zoro lost track of her as soon as she walked out of sight. Behind her, though the ghost girl didn't see, the pirate crew watched her with a thoughtful silence, until Nami broke it with a forcefully cheerful smile.

"Well, it's no use, anyway. Perona obviously has her own dreams to follow, and being with us won't help her accomplish it. Now hurry up and let's get to our business—I don't want to spend too much time here, alright?"

The first one to agree with her was Luffy. The boy turned his gaze away from the direction Perona had gone, declaring, "I want to go to Roger's execution site."

"I guess I'll need to buy some supplies," Sanji sighed. He blew a mouthful a smoke into the air, the atmosphere around him feeling unusually forlorn. Next to him, Usopp mentioned he needed to buy more tools.

Zoro was already walking into town, calling back, "I need to go buy something. I'll be back soon."

"Wait a minute," Nami stopped him. "Don't you need any money?"

"Money?"

"I could lend you some, at 300 percent interest," she smiled slyly, waving her wallet back and forth in front of his face. Zoro followed the wallet with eyes askance.

"Don't need any. I found treasure in my room," the man dug into his pocket and fished out a bulging sack, obviously full of coins. He tossed it in the air a few times, allowing himself a smug look at Nami's open mouth. The sound of gold clinking against gold hit Nami's ears like a 10-ton hammer.

"H-how did, where did you get that money? Don't tell me you stole the berries in the treasury!"

"Relax, woman. I told you, I found it on my hammock, just before we disembarked."

"But…" Nami stared at the pouch in his hands for a moment, before realization dawned on her face. She whipped her head around to look at the others, who had paused in their paths to look back at the little commotion. Except for Luffy. That boy had run off without even waiting for Nami's directions.

"Sanji, Usopp, go back to your cabin and look on your hammocks," Nami ordered.

"Of course, Nami-swan!"

Usopp didn't take to this command as well. "Hey, I need all the time I can get if I want to find all the tools I want…"

Nami turned a withering eye on the sniper. The rest of the poor boy's protests died in his throat. The woman repeated, "Go look. Now."

The men scrambled to obey, while Nami herself went into her cabin and took a look under her comforter.

And sure enough.

When she came back out on deck with a sack of berries in hand, she found two more berry sacks, one held in each of the dumbfounded crewmembers' hands.

"These…" Nami looked from pouch to pouch, trying to make sense of the situation. "These are…"

Usopp's hands shook visibly as he fingered the pouch. He had taken the liberty to count the amount inside, and it wasn't anything to joke about. "W-why is there 50 thousand berries under my pillow?"

Next to him, Zoro snorted. "Moron. Can't you even figure out that much?"

Sanji absentmindedly weighed his own pouch in his hand, replying to Zoro's snide remark, "You're the idiot, Crap-marimo. So shut up."

"Don't get me started, damn cook…!"

"Oh, for the love of…! Don't start fighting now!" shouted Nami, exasperated. "This money, who left it here?"

They all looked at each other for a moment, then, as if reading each others' mind, turned to look in the direction Perona had left.

Usopp ventured shakily, "Well, she _is _the only one out of all of us who would have this sort of money, owning her own business and all…and Nami would never give out her own money like this."

"That's for sure," Nami nodded seriously.

"I checked under Luffy's pillow," Sanji added, "there's a pouch in there, too. And a little stuffed monkey next to it."

The one Perona had finished up just before disembarking.

Nami swallowed hard. "But why would she give us this much money? Especially when she said she wouldn't be joining us? It doesn't make any sense!"

"Haven't you noticed? Nothing that woman does ever makes sense."

They all turned to look at Zoro, who stood with his arms crossed, face impassive. Though the others didn't know it, Zoro's pouch contained 100 thousand berries, not 50 thousand like the others.

And he knew why…probably.

Perona's way of expressing her "thanks" for help in finding the key, he supposed. A neatly folded note had been on top of his sack of money. It simply read: "This is to keep your mouth shut."

He couldn't help but snort in disbelief. He and Perona both knew he wouldn't have told a soul about the handcuff anyway.

"Don't think too much about it," Zoro told the others, as he turned and headed into town. "Use the money, be grateful, and that's the end of it. I'm sure that's how she meant for us to take it, anyway."

"I suppose..." Nami whispered uncertainly. Usually, free money would have sent her eyes spinning in Berry ecstacy. But right now, staring at the pouch containing 50 thousand of her favorite things, she couldn't shake off the feeling that this represented Perona's permanent "good-bye."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the harbor, Perona stood with mouth agape and parasol loose in her hands. Some passersby gave her a quizzical look, but otherwise shook their heads and went about their business, tut-tutting about young'uns these days. She didn't hear them. Her eyes roamed slowly over the wooden dock and blue waters, searching for something that clearly. Wasn't. there.

It wasn't there.

It wasn't here!

And suddenly, over the murmuring of the crowd, there rose a piercing wail. It sounded so pitiful, so forlorn, so grief-stricken and torn, that many turned their heads expecting to see someone keel over from a heart attack. One man, who stood hidden in the shadows of a nearby alleyway, switched on his den den mushi and whispered, 'target has arrived' before lowering the brim of his white hat and disappearing from the scene.

"Where's my ship with all my stuffed animals!?" Perona wailed, her face scrunched up in despair and fury. "Where are all my sewing materials!? Where are my designs, my sketchbooks!? Where's my cart full of Princess Brand clothing!? MY HARD WORK!"

Indeed, her little boat was gone. Simply disappeared. The dock was still there, the rope that had tied the boat to it was still there. The only thing missing was her boat. With all her stuffed animals and clothes, her sewing machine, her emergency savings, even her peddler's cart . . . !

She stood stock still, arms thrown up into the sky. A slow, gradual change came about her demeanor. A little boy came scampering up to the strange lady and peered into her face, only to run away, crying for mommy. A foreboding laugh began to surround her. The crowds backed away warily as the girl with cute curly pigtails let out an eerie giggle—one that did _not_ sound amused.

"Horohorohorohoro..." she lowered her arms slowly, picking up the fallen Kumashi in a deliberately drawn-out movement. The bear reached out and squeezed its cotton arms around her wrist, whispering, "Perona, …okay?"

"Horohorohorohoro, I am perfectly fine, Kumashi."

The evil glint in her eyes told a different story.

Unseen by others, a horde of Hollows burst out from Perona's small frame. White and Blue Hollows scattered across the sky and over the rooftops in minutes. It took a great deal more of energy for Perona to maintain their invisibility, but she did it anyways, determined to be as quick and efficient as possible. She felt her vision expand—she could see Loguetown from 56 different angles. 34 more Hollows searched inside the buildings, ears and eyes perked up for information about her boat. Others dispersed to look specifically for the boat itself. In the off chance that her boat had floated out to sea, she sent 5 or 6 out over the ocean blue.

But she doubted it had simply drifted off. The rope tied to the harbor had been sliced cleanly with a sharp tool.

Clearly, not the work of natural forces.

"Come, Kumashi," she commanded as she snapped her parasol open, strolling towards town. "We have a thief to catch."

.

.

.

.

On the other side of the island, two marine soldiers stood in deep conversation. They had been stationed in front of a small warehouse by Captain Smoker the day before, and now stood fingering their pistols nervously. It was deathly quiet, except for the sound of ocean waves crashing against the rocky shore.

None of the townspeople ever came down here. And for good reason. It used to be a harbor, but now it was more of an abandoned grotto; the ground sloped precariously down from the outskirts of the buildings into the crashing waves. The wooden docks had rotted away, leaving blackened wooden stumps and plankwood drifting aimlessly in the tidal pools. One wrong step on the slick, rocky surface could become a devil fruit user's worst nightmare. Suspicious noises echoed through the alleyways.

"Reckon those are cats?" one of them asked. The other, slightly older than the first speaker, elbowed him sharply.

"Shut it. So what if it is. Don't pay attention to unnecessary things."

"But it's spooky, you've got to admit."

He shivered, the chilly breeze blowing right through his white uniform. "And there's not a soul around. Why did they have to hide the boat all the way over here?"

"You dolt. How many times has the Captain explained it for us?"

The man straightened up indignantly. "I'm asking 'cause he never explained it. Who're you calling a dolt?"

"Huh? He didn't? Well," the older soldier mumbled something, then retorted, "it should have been obvious, anyways. That's why you're a dolt. There isn't any other place to hide a boat like this except here, where nobody comes. They had to make sure none of the civilians saw it. Can't have someone babbling to the 'target' about where the boat is."

"I can figure that much out by myself! What I'm asking is why are we targeting this girl in the first place? Isn't she the one who designs Ensign Tashigi's clothes?"

"…"

"Hey, I asked you a question! So you're ignoring me now?" the soldier prodded his companion with his hand. "Hey! What are you—"

Suddenly, without warning, the man's companion toppled forward onto his hands and knees. His pistol clattered noisily onto the ground. The first soldier jumped back in astonishment, afraid that maybe he'd poked the guy a little too hard. "H-hey, are you okay?"

"…"

"What?"

Did he just say something? The soldier inched closer and cocked his ear forward.

"…It's all over..." he heard his fellow marine mutter under is breath. "Sorry I called you a dolt. I'm the real dolt here. A stupid, good-for-nothing. Please, have mercy and reincarnate me into a cockroach…"

"H-huh?"

_Whoosh._

Before the remaining soldier could understand what was happening, a strange force passed through his body. It felt as if the cool sea breeze had blown right through his lungs, bone-chilling…and just plain creepy. It felt extremely unpleasant. A nasty shiver traveled up the length of his spine, penetrating the deepest parts of his cranium. This was strange. He probably should report this to the Captain.

…But really, why did that even matter. "I don't deserve to live. I don't deserve to exist. I'm sorry I've breathed the same air as everybody else…."

_Crack!_

_Thwack!_

"Hmph. That's for sure. Petty thieves like you don't deserve to exist."

Perona gave her parasol an extra long twirl as she stood over the fallen bodies—knocked clean out by the merciless point of her red umbrella. One to the noggin, the other to the back. She gave a smile of satisfaction.

"…"

One that quickly turned sour, as she regarded the ancient structure standing behind her.

"So they decided to put my boat in a grubby little, run-down place like this?" Gingerly, she stepped off the marine soldier's back and went over to throw open the warehouse doors. She grimaced a little; she hoped the stains on the door handles didn't have any germs on them. "Just like that uncouth Smoker to think of such an undignified place. How filthy!"

There was nothing her Hollows couldn't find out. Smoker, the Tennryubito, the orders from Marine HQ. A frown etched into her features as information poured in from her scattered Hollows.

The warehouse doors slid open with a resounding bang. Light poured in from the doorway, revealing grimy cement floors and even grimier walls. The elongated shadow of Perona and her curly pigtails stretched over the floor inside. Eagerly, Perona scanned the interior in search of her missing vessel.

Nothing.

There were some empty crates here and there, and a dismantled mast lying in the corner, but otherwise, no boat in sight. She narrowed her eyes.

"It's not here?"

But, wait. Maybe it was under that bulging dusty tarp over there…

"Blue Hollow!" a Possession Hollow promptly stole out of her body and morphed into the tarp, flipping it clean over to the other side of the room in one fell swoop. No, nothing under there, either. Just some empty crates.

So, did that mean Smoker actually hid it somewhere else?

A decoy?

She muttered something un-ladylike under her breath. She'd have to scour the island from top to bottom again. As she made to exit the warehouse, a movement in the shadows caught her eye.

". . . hm?"

A black smudge? No, black spots? They were scattering away from the light and into the further recesses of the room. On closer inspection, each of them sported a pair of twitching antennas.

One of the little black spots sped towards Perona, making for the open doors.

Kumashi, who had been dangling limp from Perona's arms, leapt out of her embrace even before her piercing scream filled the air.

"KYAAAAAAHHH!"

A few blocks down from the warehouse, a man in a hooded cloak looked up as Perona went zooming by through the air, shrieking at the top of her lungs. She went by so fast that he only caught a glimpse of her long pink hair, streaming behind her back, before the figure disappeared over the rooftops. Her high-pitched wails attracted quite a crowd. He could hear others beginning to murmur and shout at the sight of a flying girl zipping over town.

Monkey D. Dragon stood still, wondering whether or not he should investigate the source of the girl's terror. She sounded absolutely terrified.

But as he pondered, his sensitive ears picked up another sound. Feet slapping against the pavement. The footsteps sounded uneven, as if their owner was limping along the ground. They were coming closer, running through the alleyways at a speed that matched some of the best of Dragon's men.

'I can't feel a presence,' he noted with some surprise. If not for the footsteps, he would never have known something was approaching him. And from the direction the girl had fled from, too.

Turning towards the end of the alley, Dragon stiffened as the footsteps came nearer. There, it was right around the corner.

A mysterious figure suddenly came into view.

Dragon readied himself…then stopped.

And stared.

Kumashi the teddy bear kept right on running.

Not having been built to run, the stuffed bear was having a hard time keeping his balance as he ran along the ground, hopping on one foot every so often so as to regain his footing. The flats of his legs kept slipping on the slippery cement. But not to worry. Perona had made sure Kumashi could overcome such handicaps.

Behind the teddy bear, a series of cracks and imprints—exactly the size of Kumashi's paws—marked the teddy bear's path. Dragon watched incredulously as the unstable figure pounded its way past him, every footstep sinking an inch deep into the ground. Kumashi reached the end of the alleyway in moments.

The sight of an ungainly stuffed animal creating footprints in solid cement was enough to make anybody stop and stare, even the leader of the Revolutionary army.

"I've seen many strange creatures in my travels," he muttered to himself, "but by far, this may be one of the strangest yet."

He couldn't make up his mind whether or not to halt the stuffed animal's progress. By the time he finally decided, Kumashi was long gone.

The bear never even spared a glance at the mysterious man as it rounded the corner. Kumashi's mistress needed him. No other humans were worth a distraction. Rounding the corner, the bear left behind a perplexed Revolutionary, and a trail of crude paw prints.

If Dragon had taken the time to follow this trail back, they would have lead him back to an old warehouse by the beach. The abandoned building stood empty of everything, except for a number of dead cockroaches, crushed into the ground by a powerful force.

Kumashi did not tolerate anything that distressed Perona.

.

.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Kumashi's beloved mistress continued to fly over Loguetown at breakneck speed. Right now, Perona didn't hear the shouts and general commotion happening below her, nor did she care that units of marines in white uniforms were swiftly chasing after her. The only thing she saw were black spots, crawling over crates, crawling over the ground. Dirty, filthy, nasty, disgusting, scum-of-the-earth creatures that should all have been exterminated long, long ago.

"Ughhhhh!" she shuddered violently, her face twisting in revulsion. No matter what, she would get as far away as possible from that place.

One of the ribbons in her hair came loose, and she got a mouthful of hair as her curls billowed out in the wind. Now she couldn't even see where she was going.

She spit it out, unintentionally dropping lower in altitude as she began to regain her senses.

"This is all that Smoker's fault!" she decided, almost childishly. "To think that he had such a deadly trap waiting for me. I don't know how he got a hold of such a diabolical instrument of torture…but it won't work a second time, I'll stake my pride as a lady on it!"

She got a hold of her bearings. One of her Negative Hollows was not too far away. Through its eyes, Perona could see exactly where Smoker was hiding, along with a troop of marines. They were waiting in ambush behind some pillars next to the execution platform, where some other commotion was going on.

So, they thought they could take her by surprise?

She'd show them just how dead wrong they were.

Huh? But wait. On that execution platform…

Perona's eyes widened as she looked on through her Hollow's eyes.

"Luffy!?"

Why was he getting executed?

She screeched to a halt in mid-flight. Taking a moment to figure out her bearings, Perona realized that she had quite a sizable audience down below. Not that she cared. Barely glancing at the marine squad gathering below her feet, Perona reached out with her consciousness—connecting with her Hollows. Over here. Over there. One by the marine base. Another by the shore.

So Smoker and Luffy were…that way.

One of the marines below began shouting through a den den mushi in his hands.

"Halt! By order of Marine HQ and the Tennryubito, Perona, you are under arrest and will be taken into custody—"

Perona swiveled around and started off in an entirely new direction, conveniently flying over some big buildings to leave the land-bound soldiers scrambling after her in panic. Thunderclouds rolled on the horizon—she opened up her umbrella and held it over her head as she sailed onward towards the plaza.

The first thing she saw was the platform. It stood high above everything else—impossible to miss. A man with an ugly striped shirt and a red nose stood on top, scimitar in hand, poised to swing down onto the neck of a boy Perona knew very well. A massive crowd had gathered below, staring up at the unexpected spectacle. As far as Perona could tell, Luffy didn't seem too concerned about his current plight, if his blank face gave any indication.

"Such an idiot monkey…!" Perona huffed out as she halted to summon a few invisible Hollows. "What's his crew doing, not rescuing their captain when he's about to get killed? Such incompetence!"

She could see Zoro and Sanji trying to break through the dense crowd on the other side of the plaza. But it wasn't fast enough. Not at the rate they were going.

"I'm…!" at that exact moment, Luffy's voice rang out over the rumble of thunderclouds, "the man who will become the King of the Pirates!"

Perona nearly slapped herself. Where did that boy think he was? "Saying that with his head about to get lopped off—it's beyond embarrassing!"

Say those kinds of things when you don't have a pillory around your neck!

Lightning flashed overhead; it would begin to pour soon. She was fine thanks to her umbrella, but everyone else would probably be soaked. For a brief moment, Perona stared at Luffy, whose ship she had left behind less than an hour ago, determined never to look back. She wondered why she was even here in the first place. Pirates. Associating with them would bring nothing but trouble.

Yes. Even now, it wasn't too late. She could make herself transparent, steal away, and no one would be wiser. She'd go look for her boat, then get out of here. Evading the marines would present no trouble with her Hollows to help out. No need to go out of her way, jeopardizing her entire career, just to help out some random boy she'd met while on vacation.

He could take care of himself, at any rate.

Foreboding clouds rumbled overhead. Flashes of bright light illuminated the execution platform and the figures on top.

"Zoro, Nami, Usopp Sanji, Perona!"

Perona's eyebrows furrowed. She saw Luffy smile.

"Sorry, I don't think I'll make it this time."

The ugly clown's sword flashed; Zoro's panicked voice rang out even as the scimitar dropped, ready to chop off the head of the self-proclaimed King of the Pirates.

Even now, Luffy smiled.

_Boom!_

This time, the crack of thunder rang in her ears long after the light faded away. Fire crackled. The crowd, previously roaring with incredulity and excitement, stared silently as the entire execution platform slowly collapsed to the ground. Amidst the burning pieces of wood and red-hot metal, two charred figures plunged towards the ground.

Without a word, Perona directed a Blue Hollow into an old abandoned mattress on a nearby rooftop. Following the swing of her hand, the glowing mattress zipped over and neatly caught the smaller of the two figures in mid-air. The other, Buggy, crashed onto the bricked ground in a heap.

"Whoa!" Luffy let out a surprised yell as he 'whump'ed onto the flying furniture. His shout sounded surprisingly loud over the absolute silence reigning over the area.

Sailing over the gaping crowd, the mattress promptly deposited Luffy in front of his stunned crewmen. The captain just smiled, hopping off his temporary vehicle, "I guess I survived."

Sanji bit into his cigarette, and turned to Zoro. "Hey, do you believe in a god?"

"Don't ask stupid questions. Let's hurry up and get out of here."

But before he turned away, Sanji saw Zoro glancing around the sky above, no doubt searching for the tell-tale pink and red that would indicate the mastermind behind the flying mattress.

"Oh! My hat!" Luffy turned around and looked around frantically, searching for his beloved treasure. Not seeing it anywhere nearby, he didn't hesitate to yell out, "Perona! I need my hat, too!"

The straw hat dropped onto his head quite unceremoniously. Though the crowd stood too far away to see it, Zoro and Sanji saw clearly—a blue ghost wafting out of the hat to vanish into the air. While Luffy yelled a "thanks!" as he clutched the brim of his hat, Zoro and Sanji stood rooted to the spot, staring at the empty space the Hollow had disappeared into.

"Hey, Luffy. You know where Perona-chan is?" Sanji asked.

Luffy paused for a moment, then grinned. "Nope! But don't worry. She'll meet us back at the ship!"

"Stop spouting nonsense," Zoro shook his head and grabbed Luffy by the collar. Though he gave another glance back, he knew they couldn't dally. Marines were nearby. Quite unceremoniously, the swordsman began hauling his captain down the road. "We've got to run before…"

"Halt! By order of the marines, the pirate Straw Hat Luffy and his crew are under arrest!"

"…the marines come," he finished, muttering curses under his breath. "Why do you always manage to get in so much trouble?"

Not surprisingly, the captain just laughed. "Come on, let's run!"

As troop after troop of marines poured out from within the surrounding buildings, the three pirates picked up their pace and dashed off down the street, leaving behind Alvida and Buggy to be captured by Smoker's billowing arms.

The marine captain, cigars held between his teeth, watched the marines stuff the struggling East Blue pirates into their specially made net. These two weren't Logia, so the net would hold.

"Now, to go after that Straw Hat…" he mumbled, looking up in the direction his query had gone. "Ready that thing."

"Yes, sir!" his subordinate saluted and ran off, even as another troop leader came running over.

The lower-ranking marine looked dead beat. He was the same one who had led the fruitless chase of Perona over the past 10 minutes. "Reporting, captain! The target's entrance into the decoy warehouse was confirmed 11 minutes ago."

Smoker's eyebrows furrowed. "And?"

The soldier winced inwardly, trying not to show his nervousness as he continued, "The marines guarding the warehouse were dispatched by the target. Troop units number four and six managed to surround the warehouse when she entered the premises, but she broke through by…uh…flying into the air. We are currently in pursuit!"

"What?" Smoker blinked, noticing something weird in the soldier's otherwise standard report. Wait, flying?

He had already predicted that Perona would easily take down a low-ranked marine soldier or two. Her umbrella could pack a pretty mean punch. That was why he'd set up the decoy, and the trap, so that they'd be able to nab her as soon as she went into the building. Even with Perona's deft skills, Smoker had figured she couldn't do much when surrounded in an enclosed space. It was the most non-violent method Smoker ever concocted in his life.

"Flying? Through the air? What have you been drinking, soldier?"

At Smoker's skeptical tone, the soldier reared up in defense. "It's very true, sir! She flew up over the buildings, making it impossible to surround and arrest her as planned. What are your orders, sir?"

They eyed each other for a moment. Smoker's surly eyebrows descended lower.

The lesser ranked marine looked away discreetly—nobody could stand up to Smoker's evil eye for long. But he still didn't admit to having drunk a little too much beer the night before. Well, maybe a little, but the sight of the flying girl definitely wasn't imagined! As if for support, the leader looked back at troops four and six, who stood rank and file behind him. They took the cue and began nodding eagerly. With a triumph, the leader turned back to his captain, who merely raised an eyebrow.

"Is this mutiny, soldier?"

"…no, sir."

Never.

The subdued marines dropped their eyes to the ground.

At length, Smoker chewed on his cigars as he frowned in thought. Perona, flying? Was she a Devil's fruit user? She'd indicted nothing of the kind during the past years of her business with the marines. But then again, Devil's fruit powers weren't exactly obvious.

"Alright then, under the assumption that the target has an unknown fruit power, take your troops and continue pursuit. Without a boat, she's stuck on this island. We wait however long it takes for her to tire out, and arrest her with minimal violence, you got that?"

The troops saluted dutifully. "Yes, sir!"

As the troops started off, the marine who had gone to get Smoker's special bike came staggering out from the building he had gone into, the vehicle nowhere in sight. Smoker's frown grew deeper in annoyance. He didn't have time for delays. Even now, the Straw Hat boy was getting away. Not to mention the whole deal with Perona.

Feeling a headache coming on, Smoker unconsciously clenched his jaw. Some of the soldiers standing closest to him flinched, backing away warily.

"Soldier, I thought I told you to get my bike," he growled. His subordinate didn't reply.

Instead, the man collapsed on the brick road a few feet from Smoker, mumbling unintelligible words under his breath. Even from a distance, the man's face was a ghostly shade of white.

Some other soldiers immediately ran forward and turned the man over. "Hey, get a hold of yourself! What about the captain's bike?"

You want to get yourself killed? Hurry and get Smoker's bike!

"Just leave me to die…" the fallen man groaned. "I'm a shameful existence. I want to become a piece of algae floating on the sea…"

"What?"

"Hey, what's gotten into him?"

Others began looking at each other questioningly, then in panic. Smoker's level of annoyance was rising visibly, and none of the marines wanted to face an angry captain.

"Hey, snap out of it!" one of the fallen man's companions yelled, shaking him by the shoulders.

Such lack of discipline. Smoker shook his head and looked away, telling himself that these were _his _soldiers, and therefore _his _responsibility.

Twice as much training when this whole affair is over, he decided.

Just then, Smoker saw it.

A pale, luminous blob, slinking out from a nearby doorway. The movement was so natural, so lazy, that at first his mind didn't register what his eyes were seeing. It met Smoker's blinking eyes with its own black orbs, then proceeded to sweep up into the air in a fluid motion.

Before anybody could react, dozens of the same figure popped out from the surrounding walls. They floated up, up into the air, pausing at a height level with the rooftops of the buildings. From their vantage point, they looked down at the 100 or so marine soldiers below them.

A bit of silence.

Then, as one body, all of the pale white figures simultaneously tilted their heads to the side.

Hm?

There's too many humans.

"…?"

In the next moment, a score more of them joined the first group, tripling their ranks. Apparently, there hadn't been enough of them the first time.

For one disbelieving moment, there was a perplexed pause at the appearance of these white, transparent figures.

White, transparent figures, with eyes and a mouth? With arms but no legs?

Of course, a lone woman in the civilian crowd took the cue. She began screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Kyaaaaaahhhh!"

And then, pandemonium.

The crowd that had originally gathered to watch Buggy and Luffy's showdown, now began a mad scramble towards the other end of the plaza, pushing and shoving each other out of the way.

"Ghosts! It's the ghosts of Loguetown!"

"We're a haunted town! We're doomed! What did I tell you all three years ago!?"

"KYaaaaahhh!"

Some of the marines, though they had enough sense not to run away, gaped wide-eyed at the apparitions above their heads. Some stumbled back, knees weakening at the sight of every spooky tale's principal character.

Smoker, trying very hard to make sense of the situation, thanked the lucky stars that Ensign Tashigi had run ahead as soon as Straw Hat Luffy fell off the platform (something about settling a score with the Pirate Hunter). The woman would have either freaked out or gotten very, very excited, neither of which Smoker appreciated very much.

"Ghosts of Loguetown?" he muttered, disbelief riddling his voice.

And, as if in response, the Hollows began to dive into the crowd. As Smoker watched, his marine soldiers fell one by one to the mere touch of a ghost, and though some of them drew their pistols and tried to fire at their assailants, the bullets simply passed right through the transparent bodies. Depressing and suicidal words began to fill the air. Smoker felt himself getting down just by listening to his soldiers.

I want to be a bit of lichen…a piece of algae…a worthless worm crawling through the dirt...

A few of the ghosts attempted to dive at Smoker—the captain regained his senses with just enough time to disperse into smoke and avoid the mysterious creatures.

Whatever they were, he wouldn't go down so easily.

But his troops didn't have fruit powers. Pretty soon, the entire marine troops lay subdued. Even the Buggy Pirates the marines had captured, now lay immobilized; the ghosts had not discriminated. The civilians had long since dispersed, though a last few stragglers or fearfully curious townsfolk remained at the edge of the plaza.

This left Smoker as the only man left standing. He glanced around at his fallen soldiers, then at the scores of ghosts that were the cause of this mess. As if to show their job was complete, they simply hovered around in the air above, one and all staring down at Smoker in silence.

"Tch," he muttered, re-lighting his cigar. "And we call ourselves the marines."

They need more training, he decided. Four times as much training when we get back.

But if they were to get back, first he'd have to deal with these ghosts.

Or whatever they were.

As he readied his arm into a billowing pillar of smoke, Smoker stopped short. A distinct, yet familiar laugh met his ears.

"Horohorohorohoro..."

Smoker lifted his head.

Could it be…

There, on the edge of a rooftop, stood one of his targets for the day. She had her favorite Devil's brand parasol set neatly on her shoulder. As Smoker narrowed his eyes, that misshapen teddy bear of hers came _running_ up from behind her and jumped into her arms.

"Why, Kumashi!" Perona exclaimed, squeezing the teddy bear tightly. "Where have you been? Ah, on second thought, I think I know what you've been up to. What a good friend you are! Did you kill all the bad bugs? Did you? Hm?"

She cooed at him, not minding the disgusted expression forming on Smoker's face. He'd always known she had a tendency to talk to that eerie stuffed animal, but to think it had a mind of its own.

The bear nodded, happy to be back in his mistress' embrace. The ghosts, who looked on at the exchange somewhat critically, soon flew over to Perona and began to circle around her, disappearing into her one by one.

Disappearing into her one by one.

The gears started turning in Smoker's head.

With his arm still in smoke mode, the marine captain addressed Perona, "those things, they're your doing?"

"Sure are," she sniffed, as the last of her Negative Hollows disappeared. "Aren't they amazing? Such cute little things you'll never see again in your life. Be grateful I showed them to you at all."

Smoker's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're a devil's fruit user?"

"I don't need to tell you anything," she replied, her expression quite peeved. "Now tell me, where is my boat?"

A slight pause.

"You won't be getting it back. The Tennryubito ordered it to be delivered to them immediately—by the fastest ship available, it's onboard a marine delivery ship and halfway to Marijoia by now. So give up and let me arrest you quietly, and this won't be painful for you."

Without warning, the column of smoke on the captain's arm whipped out towards the girl standing on the roof. It was the same move that had captured every single pirate that came into Loguetown so far. Without failure.

But for Perona, they were just…clouds. Fancy.

She scoffed.

The white clouds passed straight through Perona's body. At the unexpected turn of events, the column of smoke paused a little ways out from her back, shocked into a standstill. A gust of wind quickly blew it into smithereens, and Perona smirked in triumph. Smoker didn't look as happy.

"…a Logia?"

Perona laughed, but she wasn't amused. "Horohorohorohoro! So you're really planning on arresting me for the sake of those World Nobles? You'll turn over a cute girl like me into the hands of those ugly pricks on the Red Line? So even the grand and mighty Smoker can't disobey the World Government, hm?"

Smoker's eyebrow twitched.

"I don't have time to waste," he began. "There's a pirate in town and it's my job to arrest him, and you're delaying me. As for arresting you," the captain jabbed a finger in Perona's direction, "I'm doing you a favor. It's better to be taken into custody by me than get shot down later on. All marines ranked captain and up have orders to drag you in front of Lord Rosenward, alive or dead. I'm sure you'd rather be taken alive."

He retracted his arm and tried again, this time whipping both his arms out as a net of fog.

Again, to no effect.

The ghost-girl yawned, gripping her parasol tighter as the storm began in earnest. "I'd rather not be arrested at all."

"That's not an option for you. You're wanted by every marine base in the world. No matter where you run, you'll still be hunted until you're captured."

"Horohorohorohoro," she laughed at him. Her teeth were clenched just a little bit tighter than usual, but only Kumashi was close enough to notice. "You can keep on thinking that while I make my escape. I'm terminating my contract as the marine's outfit designer. Let's see how long the marine lasts without the help of my wonderful clothes."

A few Mini Hollows popped out of her hands. She gave the captain a rather sinister smile.

.

.

.

.

.

In the meantime, Luffy and the others arrived at the harbor, where Nami and Usopp had the ship ready and prepared to set sail.

"Who was that, Zoro?" Luffy asked curious, recalling the dark-haired woman who had delayed Zoro back in town. "You know her?"

"No," came the flat reply. "She's a marine. There's no way I would know her."

"That's true."

Not that it mattered much. Zoro had defeated her quite easily, and that was the end of that.

"Guys, hurry it up already!" Usopp shouted, clinging onto the ropes for dear life. "These ropes won't hold much longer!"

The gales picked up; angry winds whipped against the sails as the ship rocked dangerously back and forth.

Nami held back her hair as it whipped about, shouting, "We need to leave _now!_ Come on, let's go!"

Zoro and Sanji obeyed without a word, hopping onto the deck and scrambling to their positions on the masts. More ropes were untied—the sailes unfurled, quickly blowing out as the storm intensified. The wooden beams creaked, but it could hardly be heard over the din of waves crashing against the harbor. Except for the Straw Hat crew, not a single soul was out in such nasty weather.

"Luffy!" Zoro called out. He was just about to hoist the anchor, when he noticed that their one and only captain still stood on the dock, his back towards them as he looked out over the town. "What are you doing?! Hurry and get on!"

"No!"

"What!?"

Luffy shook his head and crossed his arms, his stance firm. "Our last crew member isn't here!"

Nami sighed in exasperation. Maybe Perona was right—what part of 'no' didn't Luffy understand?

"She left us, Luffy! She's not coming no matter how long we wait for her. Besides, she said so herself—she has her own dreams to accomplish!"

But Luffy was adamant.

"We can accomplish her dream together! We'll be sailing all over the Grand Line—there are tons of new people we're going to meet. Come with us, Perona!"

Rain began to fall as Luffy shouted at the deserted streets. Nami fell silent as they all watched their captain call for a runaway ghost-girl. Meet new people? For someone like Perona, that would hardly sound like an incentive. But maybe, Nami wondered. Just maybe…

"She makes clothes, right?" Zoro suddenly asked. "And she wanted to sell them? Meet new people, get new customers. Not a bad deal, I'd say."

They all turned to look at him in surprise. With a grunt, Sanji shoved Zoro out of the way to stand over by the rails. "Shut up, marimo, stop stealing all my lines."

Clearing his throat, the chef called out, "Perona-chaaan! I will personally beat up anyone who dares not buy all the beautiful clothes you make!"

A solid kick from Zoro's foot sent the eager chef crashing onto the deck. The swordsman took his place on the rails, holding tightly to several ropes tied to the sails for balance. "Oy, Luffy, you're gonna have to be louder than that in a storm like this."

Luffy looked back, scratching his head. "You think so? Hm, ehem . . . PERONAAA!"

A thick curtain of rain was pouring now. The crew could barely make out Luffy's silhouette beyond the sheets of water falling from the sky. Usopp thought he saw a flash of pink.

"Eh!?" the sharpshooter ran over to stand next to Zoro, peering into the rain. "Where's Luffy?"

"Huh!?"

Indeed, in the blink of an eye, the figure that had been standing on the docks had disappeared.

But before Usopp and the others could begin panicking, a sharp voice from above their heads stopped them in their tracks.

"Don't go shouting my name like that, idiot! Why don't you just announce to all the marines that we're here!?"

With a resounding thud, their captain dropped onto the deck in a heap, kindly delivered by Perona's own right hand. She hovered three feet in the air, glaring at each of them in turn as they stared back at her in disbelief. The red parasol over her head kept her hair nice and dry.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and get going before Smoker catches up with…"

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

"Ugh, he's already here! Negative Hollow!"

A white Hollow popped out of the side of Perona's head and rushed towards the shadow of a figure running down the street. But Smoker saw it coming. Without slowing down, he dodged to the side and continued his headlong sprint, roaring for Straw Hat Luffy and Perona.

The edges of his hair had been charred, and his skin seemed oddly blackened. But nobody could tell in this downpour, anyway. Regrettably, Perona's Mini Hollows hadn't done much damage to a man made of smoke.

"Who's that?" Luffy asked, adjusting his Straw Hat quite nonchalantly. Perona bonked him over the head.

"That's the marine captain who's out to arrest us! Now I know for a fact that all of you won't even count as appetizers for that brutish man, so you had better set sail before he catches up. Get going. Now!"

At Perona's shout, Nami promptly snapped to her senses and began issuing orders. The crewmates rushed to obey; Zoro hoisted the anchor, allowing the ship, which had been straining against the rope, to take off from the shore in a rush of speed.

Smoker, skidding to a stop at the edge of the dock, pulled his arm back as he bellowed, "You won't be getting away from here!"

His arm became smoke and flew towards the ship, billowing menacingly despite the sheets of wind and rain buffeting it in its path. Luffy, the ever reckless, jumped out and sent out a gomu gomu no pistol into the hostile element, only to have his wrist become firmly trapped within the clouds.

"Huh?" Luffy tugged on his arm, panicking a little. "My arm won't come out!"

"What!?" his crew looked back to see Luffy's rubber wrist entrapped in white smoke. "What is that!?"

Perona sighed irritably. "I told you you're no match! Don't you ever listen!?"

She could barely make out Smoker as he began retracting his arm, pulling Luffy in along with it. The Straw Hat captain dragged his feet on the deck, but the rain made it slippery and he was fast losing ground. "What do I do? My rubber powers don't work on that guy!"

Perona sent out another Negative Hollow, but Smoker had his eye out for those and simply jumped out of the way. The ship just kept getting further from shore.

Just as Perona prepared to fly out and give Smoker a solid kick in the face, Luffy suddenly fell backwards, his outstretched arm swinging over to snap back into his shoulder. "Whoa!"

He skidded in the wet deck all the way into the opposite railing, but that wasn't important right now. As Luffy leapt back up, they all looked as one accord to see a dark shadow standing over the fallen Smoker. Though the distance and the rain made it hard to make out the details, it seemed as if the cloaked figure had subdued Smoker for the time being.

An unfamiliar baritone rang out over the waters, clearly heard despite the roaring din of the waters.

"Go! And create your destiny!"

Luffy stared at the figure curiously for a moment, but Nami's urgent shout brought them all into action. As they scurried along the Merry Go to help it along in its rough departure, Perona looked back one last time, to stare at the hooded figure who had mysteriously helped them escape. The man seemed to look out at their boat as it got further and further away, before turning back and disappearing into the streets. Smoker may have stood back up, but by this time she couldn't even make out the shore anymore.

"Perona!" Nami shouted, "could you tighten the ropes up on the main mast?! We can't reach them because they keep blowing away!"

"Don't order me around," came the petulant reply. But nonetheless, the ghost-girl sprang 20 feet into the air to catch the ropes one by one, wrapping them on the appropriate beams and tying them off. She'd sailed a boat by herself for years—she could tie knots while sipping hot coco.

For a while, the ship mates exchanged no words except for the occasional directions given by Nami, their navigator. Because Perona could fly, she found herself assigned to the ropes higher up on the ship, forcing her to stash her parasol and precious Kumashi below deck for fear of dropping them into the sea. Not that the umbrella would have helped her keep out of a downpour like this, anyway. Her hair soon got soaked to the roots, matting against her face and neck.

After a while, the winds lessened, and soon Nami declared that ship was on a steady course. Hearing this, Sanji went into the kitchen and came out holding a barrel of liquor, and as the rest of them looked on curiously, he gave a mischievous smile.

"How about a toast to celebrate our departure, eh?" setting down the barrel with a thud, Sanji placed his right boot onto the lid, declaring, "To find the All Blue."

The rest of them took the hint.

Luffy, laughing in excitement, put his foot down eagerly. "I'm gonna be Pirate King!"

"To draw a map of the world," smiled Nami as she did likewise.

Zoro grinned. "To become the greatest swordsman."

Even Usopp, who looked highly shaken by all these awesome statements, added his own piece, "t-to become a great warrior of the sea!"

Then, Perona found that they were all staring.

At her.

She frowned.

Her bright and happy future as the marine's number one outfit provider had just gone down the drain. The Tennryubito were out to get her, and that meant all the marines were out to get her, too. Her boat was gone, all the clothes and stuffed animals she'd made over the years were gone, all but her basic sewing kit…gone. And what was worse: she was standing out in a storm on a pirate ship, her clothes soaking wet and her hair clinging unflatteringly against her face. She felt cold, wet, and lost, with the hard truth slapping her across the face: Princess Brands didn't stand a chance against the World Government. Her business was ruined.

With all of this going on, she didn't have the slightest idea on why she'd even come back to this ship at all.

She lifted her eyes from the deck to look at Luffy—the boy grinned. Same as always.

The rest of them, well, they smiled at her, too.

Perona sniffed her nose disdainfully, unwilling to admit that in reality, these smiles were what had drawn her back.

"To be known as the best designer…this world has ever seen."

She placed a neatly polished, red boot onto the barrel, meeting their brightening faces with a smile of her own. A simple smile, not very big, nor very haughty. She couldn't remember the last time she'd smiled like this.

Luffy grinned from ear to ear.

As one, the Straw Hat crew yelled as they broke open the barrel, "Onward!"

* * *

**A/N:** Onward!

Yes, finally! They're off to the Grand Line! Epic adventures await!

As a sort of preview-spoiler: the main villain cast of the Thriller Bark Arc will probably be making its appearance soon...yes, they'll appear _before_ the actual Thriller Bark Arc. like I said, it's AU. Expect stuff to be un-canon! XD


End file.
